
Class __j!>X5X 
Book __ .yVl LL 

Copyright N^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

SERIES 



IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES 



EDITORS: 

Rev. W. H. WITHROW, M.A., D.D., F.R.S.C. 
CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS, M.A. 
J. CASTELL HOPKINS, F.S.S, 
T. G. MARQUIS, B.A. 
Rev. T. S. LINSCOTT. 



Vol. XIH. 



g^""*^ ■ 




THOMAS MACKXIGHT. 



18 



POLITICAL PROGRESS 

IN THE 

NINETEENTH CENTURY 



BY THE LATE 

THOMAS MACKNIGHT 

Author of " Thirty Years of Foreign Policy," "History of the Life and Times 
of Edmund Burke," " Ulster As It Is," Etc. 

REVISED AND COMPLETED 

BY 

^ C. C. OSBORNE 



London, Toronto, Philadelphia 

THE LINSCOTT PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1902 



THF LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

OCT, 25 1902 

CLASS CK-^Xc Ho. 
COPV B 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the Year One Thousand Nine 
Hundred and Two, by the Bradley-Garretson Co., Limited, in the Office of 
the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Entered, according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the Year One 
Thousand Nine Hundred and Two, by the Bradley-Garretson Co., Limited, 
in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. 



All Rights Reserved. 



• • e 



I 






.^ 



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PREFACE. 

Mr. Thomas Macknight, who began, but unhappily 
did not live to complete this volume of "The !Nine- 
teenth Century Series/' was born in Durham in 1829. 
He was educated at King's College, London, where he 
graduated with distinction and was awarded the first 
prize for an Essay on the Historical Plays of Shakes- 
peare. Among the professors of the College at that 
time was the Rev. J. F. Denison Maurice, one of the 
most liberal minded theological writers and influential 
social reformers of his day. To his wholesome 
influence Mr. Macknight owed much in the formation 
of his mind and character. During the impression- 
able years of his College career he acquired not only 
knowledge, but toleration of judgment, sympathy with 
the opinions and difficulties of his fellow-men, and an 
ardent interest in the many movements then springing 
up for ameliorating the condition, and promoting the 
happiness of the people. The future Liberal writer 
and Editor could not have fallen under a more potent 
or more beneficent influence. In addition to his high 
scholarship and breadth of opinion, there was a 
geniality and personal magnetism about Maurice 
which were peculiarly attractive and winning, and 
enabled him to create a deep impression upon those 
with whom he came in contact. For his professor 
Mr. Macknight learned to entertain a high regard, 
which increased rather than diminished in future 



VI 



POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



years. In his consistent advocacy of social and 
political reform, and the ^' truly catholic charity " of 
his religions views, the pupil was worthy of the mas- 
ter, who must have watched with singular interest the 
development of a mind which from the beginning 
showed evidence of vigour and originality. 

On leaving College Mr. Macknight devoted himself 
to political history and literature. His facility as a 
writer was apparent from the first. His style was 
easy and at the same time forcible. His thought 
clear, his power of illustration considerable. Before 
he w^as twenty-five he published ^'A Literary and Po- 
litical Biography of the Right Honourable Benjamin 
Disraeli. M. P.,'' which attracted favourable attention. 
In 1854 appeared ^^Thirty Years of Foreign Policy: 
a History of the Secretaryships of the Earl of Aber- 
deen and Viscount Palmerston" — an exposition and 
defence of the policy that led up to the Crimean War. 

A more ambitious work followed. As Maurice had 
influenced his earlier years, so Burke dominated his 
later development. For the character and writings of 
the great Statesman Mr. Macknight conceived an 
enthusiasm, which ended only with his life. In "The 
History of the Life and Times of Edmund Burke,'' of 
which the three volumes were published between 1856 
and 1860, he produced a work of great ability, and 
abiding value. For many years it remained the stand- 
ard authority, and at the time of his death the author 
was engaged in completing a new edition of it, and an 
annotated edition of Burke's works, to which several 
years of patient research had been devoted. 

In 1863, Mr. Macknight added to his already well 
established reputation by the publication of "The Life 
of Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke," which was 



PREFACE. yii 

deservedly praised as an impartial and able review of 
tlie chequered career of the ambitious Tory statesman 
and writer of the eighteenth century. The Saturday 
Review, entirely opposed to the political opinions of 
the author, in praising the work, said ^^Mr. Macknight 
has made himself well acquainted with all that is to 
be known of Bolingbroke and his career, and on the 
whole takes just and well-grounded views of the 
matters which he handles." This spirit of fair deal- 
ing never deserted Mr. Macknight, and was one of the 
secrets of the large influence he exerted as a writer. 
His motto might well have been ^^Be just and fear 
not." At many critical periods in British politics he 
felt and wrote strongly, but he never wilfully did 
injustice to his opponents by misrepresenting their 
views, he never abused his power by indulgence in 
personalities, or in times of victory or defeat allowed 
political rancour to sour the sweetness of his temper, 
or political passion to warp his judgment. Of how 
many writers who for more than a generation have 
been constantly, almost daily, called upon to decide 
between conflicting parties in the state, can the same 
be truthfully said ? We fear the number is not large. 
In 1866, Mr. Macknight accepted the editorship 
of The Northern Whig. This daily newspaper is the 
chief political organ of the Liberals in the north of 
Ireland. It had always occupied a position of impor- 
tance. Its previous editor was Mr. Frank H. Hill, 
who resigned his post to take charge of The Daily 
News, the chief Liberal paper of England. But under 
the direction of Mr. Macknight the circulation and 
influence of The Northern Whig were greatly ex- 
tended, and upon all questions affecting Ireland the 
opinions it expressed were quoted by the London 



Viii POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

newspapers. For thirt j-three years, down to the date 
of his death on the 19th of ITovember, 1899, Mr. 
Macknight controlled the fortunes of this great Irish 
paper with uniform success. When we remember 
the stormy times through which Ireland passed dur- 
ing those years, the task will not appear a light one. 
But Mr. Macknight had a sound and steady judgment, 
which, combined with his large-minded toleration, 
enabled him to grasp the reality, and, while express- 
ing his opinions with force and brilliancy, to avoid 
giving wanton and unnecessary offence to political 
opponents. In paying a generous and eloquent tribute 
to his work and memory. The Northern Whig, of 
November 20th, said "he displayed that unerring in- 
stinct for fact and truth, that capacity for piercing 
through the apparent to the real conditions of great 
political and social problems, which is one of the 
rarest, as it is one of the most precious, gifts of an 
editor.'' 

In politics Mr. Macknight was a strenuous and con- 
sistent Liberal, the champion of every wise reform for 
promoting the moral, social, and political improvement 
of the mass of the people. From the day he became 
editor of The Northern Whig to the end of his life, 
he rendered valuable service to the cause of progress, 
and to the party with which he was associated. The 
Liberal victory of 1868 in Ulster was in no small 
measure due to his influence; and this was gracefully 
acknowledged at the time by Lord Duflerin, and other 
Liberals, by the presentation of a handsome silver 
salver, tea and coffee service, and purse of sovereigns. 

Mr. Macknight was no mere party politician. He 
was an independent thinker, to whom the welfare of 
his country and of the Empire were of the first impor- 



PREFACE. ix 

tance. In common with many other Liberals his 
political integrity was to be submitted to a severe test. 
A personal friend and ardent admirer of Mr. Glad- 
stone, the time came when he had to make the 
momentous decision, not only for himself but for the 
newspaper of which he was the guiding spirit, whether 
he could follow the great leader in his Home Rule 
policy. Mr. Gladstone's surrender to the forces of 
Irish I^ationalism was a great shock to Mr. Macknight, 
and to all the Ulster Liberals. Trusting to his 
memorable assurances that he would uphold Imperial 
unity, the Ulster Liberals had supported Mr. Glad- 
stone with devoted loyalty. Their sudden betrayal 
was all the more hard to bear. If The Northern Whig 
had gone over to Home Rule, the result politically 
would have been very serious. But like the majority 
of the more thoughtful and educated supporters of Mr. 
Gladstone, Mr. Macknight refused to abandon the 
great principles of Liberalism at the call of any leader ._ 
He pledged himself, and the newspaper entrusted to his 
charge, to stand by the cause of Imperial unity, which 
in that crisis meant the cause of political and civil 
liberty. Subsequent events justified his action. 

Though a strenuous politician Mr. Macknight was 
personally beloved by men of all shades of political 
and religious opinion, and in 1890, on the completion 
of the twenty-fifth year of his editorship, he was pre- 
sented with a Celtic shield of silver, a valuable gold re- 
peating keyless lever watch, a cheque for a handsome 
amount in the Ulster Bank, and an Address, subscribed 
for as a mark of esteem by all parties. In the course 
of the address it was recorded that his "extensive and 
accurate information,'' his "penetration and fore- 
sight," his "fairness and undoubted courage," had 



X POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

combined to secure for his 'Apolitical judgment a large 
measure of general confidence and respect/' In 1896 
he published ''Ulster as it is," in which a very strik- 
ing and instructive picture is given of the condition 
of the most important province in Ireland. 

Mr. Macknight's responsibility for what appears in 
this volume ends with the Tenth Chapter, except for 
the letter addressed to him by Mr. Gladstone, which 
appears at the end of the Eleventh. 

C. C. OSBOKNE. 

16 St. Edmund's Terrace. 

London, N. W., Jan. 1st, 1902. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

RETROSPECTIVE : — END OP THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

PAQB 

Edmund Burke. — The French Revolution. — Political 
Progress in France. — The Rights of Man. — Alliance of 
Prussia and Russia. — Poland. — Mr. Pitt. — Agitation in 
Ireland. — Wolfe Tone.— Lord Fitz William. — The 
Orange Society. — Irish Rebellion. — The Act of Union. 
— American War of Independence 1 

CHAPTER II. 

FIFTEEN YEARS OP WAR. 

Napoleon. — Europe. — The Holy Alliance. — The British 
Ministers. — Lord Castlereagh. — Lord Byron. — Louis 
XVIII. — Greece. — Spanish Colonists. — Charles X 20 

CHAPTER III. 

A SUDDEN CHANGE. 

George IV. — Canning's Administration. — Sir Robert Peel. 
— Catholic Emancipation. — The Catholic Association. — 
The Duke of Wellington.— Daniel O'Connell.— Lord 
John Russell. — The Test and Corporation Acts. — Macau- 
lay on Reform.— The Reform Bill. 32 

. CHAPTER IV. 

PROGRESSIVE MEASURES. 

Earl Grey. — Abolition of Slavery. — Popular Education. — 
The New Poor Law. — Ireland. — Appropriation Clause 

xi 



Xii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

(Irish Tithes Bill). — O'Connell and the Repeal Move- 
ment. — Peace, Economy, and Reform. — Reduction of 
Army and Navy. — Death of William IV. — "Divine 
Right of Kings." 43 

CHAPTER V. 

BEGINNINQ OP THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 

Lord Melbourne and the Young Queen. — Don Carlos. — 
Canada : A Review. — The Creation of the Dominion. — 
Lord Dufferin, Viceroy. — Foreign Affairs. — The East- 
ern Question. — Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi. — The Quad- 
ruple Alliance. — France 56 

CHAPTER VL 

ECONOMIC POLICY : FREE TRADE. 

The Anti-Corn Law League. — Peel's Ministry of 1841. — 
Mr. Gladstone and the Tariff. — President of the Board 
of Trade. — Villiers, Cobden, and Bright. — Irish Famine. 
— Lord John Russell's " Edinburgh Letter." — Earl Grey 
and Lord Palmerston. — Abolition of the Corn Lavv^s. — 
Macaulay and Political Morality. — Burke on Free Trade. 
— Maynooth, Catholic Emancipation. — Queen's Univer- 
sity. — Lord John Russell's Administration. — Popular 
Education. — Lord Shaftesbury and the Factory Act. — 
Ecclesiastical Titles Act 73 

CHAPTER VII. 

LORD PALMERSTON AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. 

Louis Philippe, M. Guizot, and the Spanish Marriages. — 
Austria and Cracow. — Condition of Continent. — The 
Sonderbund. — French Revolution of 1848. — Invasion 
of Schleswig. — Kossuth. — Hungary. — Pius IX. — The 
Chartists. — Gibbon and the Future Security of Civilisa- 
tion. — Macaulay on the State of Europe. — Irish Physi- 
cal Force Party. — Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria. 



CONTENTS. xiii 

FAOB 

— Revival of Eastern Question. — Greece. — Louis Napo- 
leon. — Dismissal of Lord Palmerston 93 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CRIMEAN WAR: THE INDIAN MUTINY. 

End of the Russell Ministry. — Differences between Russia, 
France, and Turkey. — Turkish Fleet Destroyed at Sinope. 
— Alliance between England and France. — Lord Aber- 
deen and the Coalition Ministry. — The Crimean War. — 
Feeling of the Nation. — Lord John Russell. — Palmerston 
becomes Prime Minister. — Results of the War. — The In- 
dian Mutiny. — "Clemency" Canning. — Russia and 
Afghanistan. — The East India Company. — Clive. — War- 
ren Hastings, Results of his Trial. — Macaulay and In- 
dian Affairs 112 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE UNITED STATES, AND IRELAND. 

American Civil War. — Slavery. — Mr. Gladstone on the 
Separation of the States. — English Neutrality. — The 
Alabama Claims. — Genevan Award. — Principle of Arbi- 
tration. — Its Importance to Great Britain. — Effects of 
American Civil War, in the United Kingdom. — The 
Fenians. — Clerkenwell Explosion. — Mr. Gladstone and 
Disestablishment 131 

CHAPTER X. 

FRANCE AND GERMANY. 

Mr. Gladstone, Leader of House of Commons. — Opposi- 
tion to Reform Bill. — Robert Lowe. — The " Adullam- 
ites." — Third Derby Ministry and Second Reform Bill. — 
Old Mr. Disraeli Prime Minister. — Mr. Gladstone and Irish 
Reforms. — Bismarck. — France and Luxemburg. — Napo- 
leon III. — The Franco-German War, its Causes and Re- 
sults. — A Visit to Sedan after the Battle. — Italy United 



xiv CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

under Victor Emmanuel. — William I. Proclaimed Em- 
peror of Germany. — Russia and the Black Sea. — Ger- 
many under William III. — Her Material Progress and 
Expansion. — The Triple Alliance 141 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church. — Irish Land Bill. — 
Irish University Bill. — The Education Act. — University 
Test Act. — The Ballot Act.— Civil Service. — Abolition 
of Army Purchase. — Division and Dissension. — Fall of 
the First Gladstone Ministry. —Dissolution of Parlia- 
ment. — Home Rule Movement and Mr. Butt. — Mr. Glad- 
stone and the Leadership of the Liberal Party 158 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE " UNSPEAKABLE " TURK. 

Results of Crimean War, and Treaty of 1856. — Turkish 
Misrule. — Syrian Massacres. — State of the Balkan Prov- 
inces. — Crete. — The Andrassy Note. — The Berlin Mem- 
orandum. — Revolt in the Balkans. — The Bulgarian 
Atrocities. — Policy of the Government. — Servia and 
Montenegro. — Lord Derby's "English Terms." — Rus- 
sia's Ultimatum. — European Conference at Constanti- 
nople. — War between Russia and Turkey. — Lord Der- 
by's" Charter of English Neutrality." — Divisions in the 
Liberal Party. — Treaty of San Stefano. — Congress of 
Berlin. — Agreement between Russia and England. — 
Anglo-Turkish Convention.— Cyprus Ceded to Eng- 
land. — Policy of the Government on the Eastern Ques- 
tion.— Mr. Gladstone's Views 174 

CHAPTER XIII. 

EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 

The Suez Canal.— Financial Condition of Egypt.— Mr. 
Frederick Greenwood's proposal to Lord Derby.— Pur- 



CONTENTS. XV 

PAGB 

chase of the Suez Canal Shares. — Its Notable Results. — 
Anglo-French Convention. — The Dual Control. — The 
Deposition of Ismail. — Arabi Pasha's Revolt. — British 
Occupation of Egypt. — The Soudan. — Slave Trade. — Sir 
Samuel Baker. — Gordon's Administration. — His Difficul- 
ties and Success. — The Mahdi's revolt. — Col. Hicks. — 
Evacuation of the Soudan. — Gordon's Return to Khar- 
toum. — Defeat of Baker Pasha. — Vacillating Policy of 
the British Government. — Military Expedition to 
Suakim. — Siege of Khartoum. — Sir Evelyn Baring. — 
Gordon and the British Ministry. — His Murder. — The 
Rescue Expedition and its Objects. — Adoption of Gor- 
don's Policy. — Osman Digua. — The Emir Wad-en- 
Nejnmi. — Kitchener's Campaign. — Re-conquest of the 
Soudan 307 

CHAPTER XIV. 

INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 

Russia and British Rule in India. — Afghan War of 1838. 
— Policy of British Statesmen. — Political Necessity ver- 
sus non-intervention. — Annexation of Sinde, Gwalior, 
and the Punjab. — Civil War in Afghanistan. — Shere Ali, 
Ameer. — Fear of Russia. — Defensive Alliance Refused by 
Lord Mayo and Lord Northbrook. — Russian Mission to 
Cabul. — Refusal of the Ameer to Receive a British En- 
voy. — War with Shere Ali. — Yacoob Khan. — Massacre 
of British Resident at Cabul. — Defeat of the Afghans. 
— Abdur-Rahman made Ameer. — Mr. Gladstone's In- 
dictment. — Lord Beaconsfield's Defence of the Govern- 
ment. — Progress of Afghanistan under British Protec- 
tion. — Revisions of the Indian Frontier. — India under 
the Crown. — Democracy Unsuited- to Orientals. — Pater- 
nal Despotism. — How India is Governed. — Progress of 
the Empire. — Famines : Preventive and Relief Meas- 
ures. — Consolidation of British Rule. — Lord Roberts and 
Frontier Defence. — Visit of the Prince of Wales. — Lord 
Beaconsfield and British Mohammedan Subjects 235 



xvi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XV. 

RUSSIA. — JAPAN. 

PAGE 

Intellectual Movements in Russia. — Difficulties of Reform. 
— Liberation of the Serfs. — Bondage of the Communal 
System. — Local Bodies and the Central Administration. 
— Defects of the Land Laws. — Herzen and Nihilism. — 
Revolutionary Agitation. — Political Terrorism. — Assas- 
sination of Alexander II. — Repressive Measures of Alex- 
ander 11. — Women and the Reform Movements. — Nicho- 
las II. — A more Liberal Rule. — Russian Foreign Policy. 
— Japan Previous to 1853. — The Mikado and his Shogun. 
— Feudalism Overthrown. — A Constitutional Monarchy. 
— The Army and Navy. — Democratic Institutions. — 
Education. — Political and Material Progress. — War with 
China. — Russia, Japan, and the Corea 265 

CHAPTER XVI. 

MR. DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 

Foreign and Colonial Policy. — Home Legislation. — Aboli- 
tion of Patronage in the Church of Scotland. — Public 
Worship Regulation Act. — Mr. Plimsoll and the Protec- 
tion of British Seamen. — Laws Regulating the Liquor 
Traffic. — The Government and Mr. Bruce's Licencing 
Act of 1872. — Elementary Education. — Appellate Juris- 
diction of the House of Lords. — Small but useful Meas- 
ures of Reform. — Growth of Obstruction in the House of 
Commons. — " Espying Strangers." — Mr. Parnell and the 
Rules of Procedure. — Home Rule Agitation. — Founding 
of the Land League. — Mr. Gladstone's Declaration on 
the Supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. — Lord Bea- 
consfield's Letter to the Duke of Marlborough. — The 
Dissolution of 1880 and its Result 295 

CHAPTER XVII. 

LIBERAL STATESMEN AND IRISH AGITATORS. 

The Liberal Ministry of 1880-1885.— Mr. Bradlaugh and 
the House of Commons. — A Constitutional Deadlock. — 



CONTENTS. xvii 

PAGE 

The Fourth Party. — Burial Laws Amendment Act. — The 
Ravages of Ground Game. — Conciliation for Ireland. — 
Mr. Parnell versus Mr. Gladstone. — The Land League 
Agitation. — Crime in Ireland. — Boycotting. — Causes of 
Irish Discontent. — Protection of Persons and Property 
Act. — Peace Preservation Act. — Obstruction in the 
House of Commons. — Irish Land Act. — Eoman Catholic 
Clergy and the Parnellite Agitation. — Mr. Gladstone De- 
nounces Mr. Parnell. — His Arrest. — Fenian Conspiracies. 
— Death of Lord Beaconsfield. — Married Women's Prop- 
erty Act. — The Cloture. — New Message of Peace to Ire- 
land.— The Kilmainham Treaty. — Resignation of Lord 
Cowper and Mr. Forster. — Assassination of Lord Fred- 
erick Cavendish and Mr. Burke. — Prevention of Crimes 
Act. — The Arrears of Rent Act. — The Invincibles Un- 
masked. — Punishment of the Phoenix Park Murderers. 
— Fate of Carey, the Informer. — The Pope and the Par- 
nell Testimonial Fund 316 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

~ THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 

Bribery at Elections. — Report of the Commissioners. — 
Corrupt Practices Act. — Agricultural Holdings Act. — 
Bankruptcy Act. — The Demand for Reform. — Dissen- 
sions in the Cabinet. — The Franchise Bill. — Attitude of 
the Conservatives. — Conflict with the House of Lords. 
— A Campaign against the Peers. — "No surrender". — 
A Compromise. — The Redistribution of Seats Bill. — 
Fenian Outrages. — The Budget. — Defeat of the Govern- 
ment. — Conservative Ministry Formed.— The Dissolution. 
— Mr. Parnell Demands National Independence for Ire- 
land. — Result of the Elections 356 

CHAPTER XIX. 

HOME RULE. 

The Liberals and the Integrity of the Empire. — Attitude 
of Mr. Gladstone. — Defeat of the Ministry. — The Liberal 



xviii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Government. — Mr. Gladstone's Irish Home Rule and 
Land Purchase Bills. — Schism in the Liberal Party. — 
Defeat of the Government. — Appeal to the Country. — 
Great Majority against Home Rule. — The Plan of Cam- 
paign. — A new Crimes Act. — Irish Land Act of 1887. — 
The Queen's Jubilee. — Imperial Feeling. — Local Self-gov- 
ernment for England. — " Parnellism and Crime" — Re- 
port of the Special Commission. — The State of Ireland. 
— Increase of the Navy. — Death of Mr. Bright. — The 
Downfall of Mr. Parnell. — Irish Land Purchase Act. — 
Free Education. — The Factories and Workshops Act. — 
Small Agricultural Holdings Act 388 

CHAPTER XX. 

THE WRECK OF THE LIBERAL PARTY. 

Conservative Scheme of Local Self-government for Ire- 
land. — General Election of 1892 and its Results. — Mr. 
Gladstone's Fourth Administration. — The new Home 
Rule Bill. — Rejected by the House of Lords. — Retire- 
ment of Mr. Gladstone. -^Lord Rosebery. — Graduated 
Death Duties. — Defeat of the Ministry. — Appeal to the 
Country.— Overwhelming Unionist Majority. — Fusion 
of the Liberal Unionists and Conservatives. — "The Un- 
speakable " Turk again. — Irish Land Act of 1896. — Em- 
ployers' Liability Act. — Death of Mr. Gladstone. — Ire- 
land Granted Local Self-government. — National Edu- 
cation 410 

CHAPTER XXL 

DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 

Growth of Modern Democracy. — Its Principles and Ten- 
dencies. — Contrasted with Socialism. — Recent Demo- 
cratic Legislation. — Equality in Liberty. — Capital and 
Labour. — Tlie Combination Acts. — Rise of Trades 
Unions. — Co-operation. — Results of Reform. — The State 
the Protector of the Weak. — The Rights of Children. — 



CONTENTS. Xix 

PAGE 

State Interference. — Welfare of the Masses versus the 
Privileges of the Classes. — Liberty of the Individual. — 
Distribution of Wealth. — Equalisation of the Conditions 
of Life. — Democracy and the Colonies. — The Confedera- 
tion of Self-governing States. — The Dominion of Canada. 
— Australia and Federation. — The Federal Council. — 
Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth Framed. 
— Imperial Federation. — The Colonies and the Mother 
Country. — Hands across the Sea. — The War in South 
Africa. — "A Great Wind of Imperial Spirit." — British 
Policy and the Transvaal. — Mr. Gladstone. — Sir Bartle 
Frere's Warning. — An intolerable Domination. — The 
Afrikander Bond.— The Future 426 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE UNITED STATES. 

The War of Independence. — Proposal to Make Wash- 
ington a King. — American Society and Institutions 
Essentially English. — Importance of a Strong Central 
Government Foreseen. — The Elasticity of the Constitu- 
tion. — The Clash Between Federal and State Rights. — 
Formation of the Two Great Political Parties. — Wash- 
ington, Hamilton, and Jefferson tlie Three Great 
Leaders. — The Purcliase of Louisiana. — Texas Joins the 
United States. — An Immense Area of Territory Ac- 
quired from Mexico. — Alaska Purchased from Russia. 
—The War of 1812.— The Monroe Doctrine.— The Cry 
of " Corruption " First Heard. — Origin and Evils of 
the Spoils System. — The Protective Tariff Divides the 
North and South. — The Right of Secession Advocated. 
— Slavery Becomes a Burning Question. — The Civil 
War. — Freeing of the Slaves. — The Negro Enfranchised. 
Great Commercial and Industrial Expansion. — Growth 
of Imperialism. — The War with Spain and its Results.. 461 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FACING PAGE 

Thomas Macknight Frontispiece 

Daniel O'Connell 38 

The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava 64 

The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone 162 

Charles S. Parnell 358 

William Lloyd Garrison 480 



POLITICAL PKOGEESS OF THE 
NINETEENTH CENTUEY. 



CHAPTEK I. 

retrospective: end of the eighteenth century. 

Edmund Burke died about midnight of Saturday, 
the 8th of July, 1797. The eighteenth century, as 
will be seen, was then closing, under very different 
auspices from those which attend the end of the nine- 
teenth. That there has been a very great advance in 
all that can be called political progress will scarcely 
be disputed by anyone. Politics may be said to em- 
brace all that relates to the government of mankind 
in a social or civilized community. In a state of 
barbarism, generally represented by a despotism, there 
can be no politics, as the word is now understood, 
embracing the highest interests of mankind, and ex- 
tending from the government of a city, to the pro- 
motion of the welfare of a great community both in a 
N^ational and Imperial sense. 

On looking backover the last ten years of the eight- 
eenth century the eye is first struck with the great 
French Revolution, followed in the very last year of 
that century by the establishment of the Imperial 
despotism under the first IN^apoleon. The bright 



2 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

hopes with which the opening of the States-General 
were regarded on the 5th of May, 1Y89, were soon 
overclouded. Little more than a month afterwards 
the Tiers Etat formed themselves into the ISTational 
Assembly, and on the fourteenth of the following 
month of July the French Revolution may be vir- 
tually said to have commenced by the destruction of 
the Bastille. In the autumn the National Assembly 
decreed that the title of the King of France should be 
changed to that of the King of the French ; the prop- 
erty of the clergy w^as confiscated, and the emigra- 
tion of the nobles began. Throughout the world, and 
especially in the United Kingdom, the French Revo- 
lution was hailed as almost the noblest event in the 
history of mankind. France, after having so long 
lain under a relentless despotism, was at one bound 
supposed to have made an enormous advance in politi- 
cal progress. Before, everything had appeared dark 
to those who compared the reigns of three successive 
French sovereigns with English constitutional free- 
dom under William and Mary, under William him- 
self, and the succeeding sovereigns of the house of 
Hanover. 

The great majority of the British people, the great 
majority indeed of civilized and enlightened people 
throughout the world, rejoiced at the French people 
having, as was thought, thrown off the heavy yoke of 
the Bourbon despotism, l^early all who believed in 
political progress, may be said to have taken on this 
question the same side. But not a month after the 
fall of the Bastille, we find Edmund Burke writing, 
to his friend Lord Charlemont, these remarkable 
words : "The spirit it is impossible not to admire : 
but the old Parisian ferocity has broken out in a 
shocking manner. It is true that this may be no more 



RETROSPECTIVE. ^ 3 

than a sudden explosion: if so, no indication can be 
taken from it; but should it be character rather than 
accident, then that people are not fit for liberty, and 
must have a strong hand like that of their former 
masters to coerce them. Men must have a certain 
fund of moderation to qualify them for freedom, else 
it becomes noxious to themselves and a perfect 
nuisance to everybody else."* 

This will be admitted to be a remarkable forecast. 
The problem thus presented in a letter to the patriotic 
Irish nobleman, may be said more or less to have per- 
plexed those who have watched political progress in 
France during the whole course of this century. It 
wiU constantly arise in the course of the events at 
which we may glance as they roll on. Even now, at 
the close of the century, can we say that the problem 
may be considered to have been fully, and satis- 
factorily solved? Can we say, standing on the very 
threshold of the new century, that political progress 
in France has been all that it was sanguinely expected 
to be just after the Bastille fell? Can we say, even 
after a hundred and ten years, that the French Revo- 
lution is yet complete? 

It was natural, however, that the great and sudden 
change of the old French despotism, into what was 
at first believed to be a constitutional monarchy after 
the English type, should be hailed with delight by 
nearly all friends of political progress. The future 
was as yet covered with a cloud; but it had, at all 
events to many eyes, the brightest gleams of light. 
Writing sometime afterwards to his friend, Fitz- 

*Hardy's * « Life of Lord Charlemont ' ' edit. 1810. Page 322. 
Charlemont Manvscripts and Correspondence, Volume 2. 
Page 104. 



4 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

patrick, Charles Fox, tlie then leader of the Opposi- 
tion, exclaimed of the French Revolution: ''How 
much the greatest event it is that has ever happened 
in the world ! And how much the best !" Even 
Pitt, Prime Minister of what had become a Tory 
government, looked on what was occurring in Paris 
with approving eyes. It used to be said, that when 
France was satisfied the world was tranquil. M. 
Thiers, at a much later time, did not hesitate to de- 
clare that it was the mission of France to radiate 
ideas for the universe. The first of the constitutions 
of Abbe Sieyes was hailed with applause, even by 
practical English politicians, who were accustomed 
to the workings of a free government and a gradually 
developed constitution. We find Fox, for instance, 
describing what was considered the first French con- 
stitution after the Revolution, as "the most stupendous 
and glorious edifice of liberty, which had been erected 
on the foundation of human integrity, in any time, 
or country." 

Abbe Sieyes, who had to try his hand at so many 
French constitutions, stated to M. Dumont that Polity 
was a science which he thought he had brought to com- 
pletion. Many Frenchmen, many of the French 
legislators at any time, had the same idea, until in 
the pursuit of it they began to cut off one another's 
heads. Then they, and those who had been their ad- 
mirers in the United Kingdom, and in many lands, 
began very reluctantly to reconsider their opinions. 
They had to confess at last that the Revolution, like 
an unnatural mother, was devouring her own children. 

The guillotine may be said to have been erected on 
the Rights of Man. These represented a contradiction 
in terms. As we now read the Rights of Man, they 



RETROSPECTIVE. 5 

seem a string of commonplaces, which all people can 
accept on the principle of equality. They all logically 
follow from the first, that all men are born free and 
equal, and that social distinctions are purely conven- 
tional. But it is upon the application of this principle, 
and the others that are deduced from it, that civil 
society, and all that is embodied in political progress, 
may be said to depend. The Rights of Man have 
been compared by Madame de Stael, and others, to 
the English Bill of Rights, and to the American 
Declaration of Independence. But there was between 
them a wide difference. The Bill of Rights was an 
assertion of rights which it was maintained had long 
been enjoyed, and were part of the constitution. The 
Bill of Rights was the embodiment in a legal form of 
the Declaration of Rights, understood to have been 
drawn up by Somers. It added, that ^^the Lords and 
Commons do claim, demand, and insist of all and 
singular the premises as their admitted rights and 
privileges." Nothing whatever was said about 
natural rights. The assertion was of legal rights, the 
rights, not of Man, but of Englishmen. It was 
sought to deal with abuses, which in the course of 
time had become associated with an established 
government, handed down from many generations, — 
from Magna Charta in the reign of King John, if 
some of those rights and privileges had not come 
down from an even earlier time. Those rights were 
claimed as an inheritance. 

The same may be said with respect to the Declara- 
tion of American Independence. This has been 
called ^Hhe most memorable public document that his- 
tory records."* In the introductory sentences, in 

*Tucker's Life of Jefferson^ vol. 1. p. 90, 



6 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

which the Deputies of Congress affirm it to be self 
evident "that all men are created equal, that they 
are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable 
rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness,'' and so forth, there are general 
expressions about natural equality, which may be 
regarded as the forerunner of the declarations of the 
Rights of Man passed by the French National 
Assembly. They may be considered, indeed, to have 
a French and not an English origin, being evidently 
suggested by the Social Contract of Kousseau, which 
had been published at Amsterdam in 17G2, fourteen 
years before the American Declaration of Independ- 
ence. But while these general expressions remind 
readers of the Rights of Man, as affirmed by the 
French National Assembly, soon after the beginning 
of the great Revolution, they are followed by a long 
recapitulation of the treatment the colonies had re- 
ceived from George the Third, as justifying the de- 
cisive step taken on the 4th of July, 1776. They 
were the Rights of Englishmen, which were as- 
serted to have been deliberately and persistently 
violated. British constitutional rights were tram- 
pled underfoot, as well as what are assumed to be the 
principles of natural equality, which the historian 
David Hume, a great admirer of the old French 
Monarchy, had asserted to be engraven on the hearts 
of all men. Burke pointed out this significant sen- 
tence of Hume's : but though the great Irishman had 
not a good word to say in favour of the French Dec- 
laration of Rights, he never said a word against the 
American Declaration of Independence, which, un- 
der the circumstances, he evidently considered quite 
justifiable. 



RETROSPECTIVE. 7 

The colonies whicli threw off their British alle- 
giance, did so, as is well known, with much reluct- 
ance. There was some difficulty in getting the 
Declaration of Independence carried. Franklin on 
this subject used even the language of regret. The 
descendants of the English Puritans, who took so 
active a part in establishing the great Republic of the 
United States, were very different men from those 
who, in the concluding year of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, were engaged in the attempt to set up the 
French Republic. They looked at politics from dif- 
ferent, almost from opposite points of view, separated 
by what Coleridge called the whole diameter of be- 
ing. That certain of the new American citizens, and 
many Englishmen, may have shewn sympathy with 
the French Revolution while it was proceeding, was 
natural enough. But they were not disposed to make 
common cause with the French Republicans. They 
did not think of proclaiming war against all kings. 
George Washington was, indeed, complimented by 
certain members of the subsequent Directory for ^^the 
hatred he bore to England." This was pointed out, 
at the time, as contrary to the fact : it has long been 
acknowledged not to be the fact. 'No person at the 
close of this century would assert anything so absurd. 
Washington had the manners, the feelings, and even 
the prejudices, of an English gentleman. So had 
many of those who co-operated with him in freeing 
the colonies from what they had been made to regard 
as a British yoke by George the Third's narrow- 
minded, and oppressive obstinacy, assisted by those 
who called themselves the King's friends, though they 
were really their country^s worst enemies. It is 
scarcely necessary to say that the ISTew England 



8 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

colonies, and the others which ultimately joined them, 
formed both their State Governments, and their Gen- 
eral Government, on the English model. Repub- 
lican as they were in form, there was much that was 
Conservative, and even Monarchical in their spirit: 
and notwithstanding that the United States have re- 
ceived so large a number of colonists from other coun- 
tries, the influence of this spirit is still felt among 
them. 

The nominal alliance of Prussia and Russia, as 
shadowed forth at the interview between the two 
sovereigns at Pilnitz in the August of 1791, did not 
check, but rather intensified the course of the Revolu- 
tion. To the Monarchical League, formed of the var- 
ious sovereigns, professedly, at the beginning, to ob- 
tain the freedom of Louis the Sixteenth, might be 
applied what the unfortunate Emperor Joseph had in 
former years said of himself : ''Here lies the Emperor 
Joseph, who failed in all his undertakings." The 
invasion of Erance precipitated events. As Danton 
said, the head of the King was the first cannon ball 
discharged at the allied Powers. The first apparent 
success of Prussia really made matters worse. It 
called out the patriotic and military spirit of all who 
had declared war against sovereigns, and of all who 
were not prepared to see their country partitioned. 
It was subsequently said that it never was a war of 
alliance: there was no system, no common object. 
Dumouriez, supposed to be the Girondists' general, 
appears to have acted, at a great crisis in military 
operations, very much as Bazaine was afterwards 
accused of doing : that is, of acting as a politician for 
dynastic objects, and not merely as a commander, 
bound to defend his country under all circumstances 
against a foreign enemy. 



RETROSPECTIVE. ^ 9 

A few montlis before the Convention at Pilnitz 
there was supposed to be a peaceful revolution in 
Poland, and a constitutional monarchy at last satis* 
factorily established. This was stated by Burke, in 
the "Appeal from the 'New to the Old Whigs,'' to 
be "so far as it had gone probably the most pure, 
and defecated public good which ever had been con- 
ferred upon mankind." At the conclusion of the 
paragraph on this subject, we find the great states- 
man and philosopher exclaiming: "Happy people, 
if they know how to proceed as they have begun! 
Happy prince, worthy to begin with splendour, or 
to close with glory, a race of patriots and kings, and 
to leave 

A name which every wind to heaven would bear, 
Which men to speak, and angels joy, to hear." 

It is sad to remember how those enthusiastic antic- 
ipations, of the most eloquent and far sighted de- 
fender of settled government and of Monarchy in 
those days, or in any days, were contradicted by facts. 
A few months after Burke wrote these words, the 
Polish nobles, discontented with the loss of privileges 
which had been so much abused, formed what was 
called the Confederation of Targovica, and instigated 
the Russian invasion. Resistance was put down by 
the united troops of Russia and Prussia, and then, 
with Austria as their ready accomplice, the second 
partition of Poland was consummated. This was 
followed by the third partition three years after- 
wards. Such sovereigns could scarcely consider 
themselves superior to the French Jacobins, to the 
subsequent Directory, or to IsTapoleon, who by his 
promises to reconstitute the Kingdom of Poland in- 
duced the Poles to rally round him as their military 



10 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

champion. When the first partition of Poland waa 
accomplished, it was prophesied that this was the 
road by which the Russians would enter Germany 
The result, during a considerable part of the nine 
teenth century, was undoubtedly to make Prussia the 
liumble ally of Russia, and even Austria a convenient 
instrument. It was a great drawback on the politi- 
cal progress we have to record. These partitions of 
Poland, more than half a century afterwards, were 
called by Lord Palmerston the dangerous legacy of 
a successful wrong. Such, with all respect to Mr. 
Carlyle's memory, they were. They were the fore- 
runners of other great international crimes. Their 
spirit is perhaps not yet extinct. 

Mr. Pitt and his Government were reluctantly 
dra\vn into the continental coalition against Jacobin 
France. Whether, under any circumstances, peace 
between the two countries could have been main- 
tained may be doubted. In looking upon all kings 
as their enemies, the French Republicans challenged 
monarchical Europe. But to attempt to put down the 
Revolution by force of arms, was from the begin- 
ning a hopeless undertaking, and carried with it its 
own inevitable defeat. As was justly said, it was with 
an armed doctrine that the allied Powers went to war, 
and could armed doctrines be put down by armies, led 
by sovereigns who were seeking their own aggrandise- 
ment, as had been done at the expense of Poland, and, 
though the intention was not avowed, might be done 
at the expense of France ? 

The French Jacobins, even while com- 
mitting such frightful atrocities, had sym- 
pathisers and agents nearly everywhere. This was 



RETROSPECTIVE. 11 

the case even in England. It was especially the case 
in Ireland. The volunteers, organised to defend 
that country from invasion when it was virtually left 
defenceless in the middle of the last century, and 
subsequently, under not dissimilar circumstances, 
during the American war, were used even by patriotic 
men to extort the commercial and even political inde- 
pendence of their island. In the crisis of the war 
with the colonies, and with the impending interven- 
tion of France and Spain, Ireland, as was said, de- 
manded freedom of trade with arms in her hand. 
The demand became irresistible; and an important 
and alluring lesson was given, which was not destined 
to remain undeveloped. 

A Catholic Association had been formed about the 
time of George Ill's accession. It was only by de- 
grees that the Association took up the questions of 
complete emancipation, and Parliamentary Reform. 
There were then three parties in Ireland: the Estab- 
lished Church, or ascendency party, who had all the 
public patronage: the Protestant dissenters, or ITon- 
conformists, of whom the large majority were Pres- 
byterians : and the Catholics, who, owing to the penal 
laws, had little hold on the land as proprietors. Very 
soon after the French Revolution began, under the 
influence of its democratic spirit, the Catholic Asso- 
ciation boldly raised its head. Its leaders, by invit- 
ing Edmund Burke's son, Richard, to be their agent 
and adviser, took what was regarded as a most judici- 
ous step. It was very well known that his illustrious 
father, while strongly opposed to the French Revolu- 
tionary ideas, was in favor of the emancipation of his 
Roman Catholic countrymen. 

It is not difficult to understand that the French 



12 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

Revolution, notwithstanding the crimes with which 
it became associated, had a powerful influence both 
on the Irish Catholics and the Protestant dissenters. 
The moderation, and what may be called the Con- 
servatism, of Richard Burke under his father's teach- 
ing and influence, therefore, soon became obnoxious 
to those who looked forward to the establishment of 
an Irish Republic under French protection. Though 
at first avowedly constitutional, this gradually became 
the object of the first Society of United Irishmen 
founded in Belfast. It was followed by a similar 
Association, founded in Dublin under the encourage- 
ment of Wolfe Tone. At the beginning of his 
memoirs. Tone candidly confesses: '^My object was 
to secure the independence of my country under any 
form of government. In this I was led by a hatred 
of England, so deeply rooted in my nature that it 
was rather an instinct than a principle." In another 
passage of his memoirs, writing from what he had 
himself observed in 1791-92, Tone says: ^'The Dis- 
senters of the !N^orth, and more especially in the town 
of Belfast, are from the genius of their religion, 
and from the superior diffusion of political informa- 
tion among them, enlightened Republicans. They 
have ever been foremost in the pursuit of Parliament- 
ary Reform, and I have already mentioned the early 
wisdom and virtue of the town of Belfast, in propos- 
ing the emancipation of the Catholics as far back as 
the year 1783."* 

Between the Presbyterians, and other Protestants 
then spoken of as dissenters, and their descendants a 
century afterwards, there could scarcely be a greater 

*The Autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone. Volume 1, 
Page 55 and page 47. 



RETROSPECTIVE. 13 

contrast. They may now be considered nearly all 
Unionists, devoted to the British connection, and to 
everything with which Wolfe Tone would have wished 
them not to sympathise. I have heard some people 
of considerable eminence regret this great change, and 
characterise it as political retrogression instead of po- 
litical progress. But that is a matter of opinion, on 
which all readers will form their own conclusions. 

The members of the Society of United Irishmen 
became more and more Kepublican and in favour of 
French intervention. Wolfe Tone succeeded Rich- 
ard Burke as the agent, or adviser, of the Catholic 
Committee, and, it may be said, of the United Irish- 
men. He acted after his kind. The constitutional 
mask was soon thrown off, and even the ISTorthern 
Whig Club, at first quite loyal, and moderately 
Liberal, found itself, after the resignation of many 
members who deprecated its recent course, very much 
like the Society of United Irishmen. 

What was the result ? In the North of Ireland 
even the Protestants became divided into two sec- 
tions, bitterly opposed to each other. 

The Catholic forty shilling freeholders had been 
granted the franchise in 1793. This was supposed 
to be only a step towards general Catholic emancipa- 
tion. Soon afterwards the Duke of Portland, Lord 
Fitzwilliam, Earl Spencer, William Windham, and 
other Whigs, — old Whigs as they were called, — under 
Burke's encouragement joined the Ministry. Richard 
Burke was returned for Lord Fitzwilliam's pocket 
borough of Malton, in Yorkshire; and it was under- 
stood that he would go as Chief Secretary to Ireland, 
under Lord Fitzwilliam as the Lord-Lieutenant. But 
consumption had marked Richard Burke for its prey: 
and at a dinner given in anticipation of the appoint- 



14 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ments, death, to all eyes but those of the happy father, 
was seen to be written on the young man's face. All 
the fond hopes of the father that, under his dearest 
friend, his son would take part in the emancipation 
of his Catholic countrymen, were buried in an early 
grave. 

Lord Fitzmlliam went to Ireland as the Sovereign's 
Viceroy, only in a few weeks to be recalled. The 
hopes which the appointment had excited were pain- 
fully disappointed. A controversy afterwards arose, 
as to how far Lord Fitzwilliam was justified in en- 
couraging the speedy removal of the Catholic dis- 
abilities. It was doubtless understood that there was 
to be some delay, that the business was not to be 
entered upon at once, or in the first year of Lord 
Fitzwilliam's Lord-Lieutenancy. As far as the Cath- 
olics were concerned, it was not intended, and could 
never have been intended, that matters should re- 
main as they were. But the King, with his diligently 
inculcated scruples about his coronation oath, stood 
in the way, if apparently a little in the background. 
Lord Fitzwilliam himself acted somewhat precipi- 
tately by the dismissal of Beresford and others, a dis- 
missal which alarmed Lord Downshire, and the rep- 
resentatives of the old ascendency, who claimed as 
their right all the honours and emoluments of the 
State. On the circumstances of the recall of Lord 
Fitzwilliam it is not necessary to dwell. Its political 
eifects, however, were most disastrous. They mark 
a turning point, and a retrogression, in Irish history. 

The Orange Society was established primarily in 
opposition to the United Irishmen. Belfast may be 
said to be their home, the home which a short time 
before both Lord Charlemont, who had not made up 



RETROSPECTIVE. 15 

his mind in favour of Catholic Emancipation* — the 
logical and inevitable result of his politics — and 
Wolfe Tone, who sought by French arms to separate 
Ireland from Great Britain, professed even passion- 
ately to love. 

United Irishmen who contemplated an appeal to 
arms before Lord Fitzwilliam's recall, only became 
more resolute in their object after that event. The 
Orangemen and their sympathisers, who were very 
numerous in the ]^orth of Ireland, were ready for 
resistance. The yeomanry, who were called out and 
prepared for action on the side of the Government, 
looked forward confidently to meeting all rebels who 
ventured to come openly into the field. Though the 
rebellion is always spoken of as that of '98, and had 
a centenary celebration in 1898, it may be said to 
have begun in 1797. 

The hopes of a French invasion had a powerful 
effect on both the disaffected Catholics and Presby- 
terians. Ulster was in an extraordinary state, with 
which the Government seemed quite powerless to 
deal. The Ministers were groping their way in the 
dark. They were driven into severe and even op- 
pressive measures, but when all that can be is said 
against them, they cannot be compared with the 
tyranny which had been, and still was being exercised 
in France, under a government professedly a re- 
public based on the Rights of Man. Bonaparte's 
successful campaigns in Italy encouraged the Irish, 
who were looking forward to a French invasion. To 
enter on the details of the Irish Rebellion would 
here be supererogatory. It was gradually, and un- 
mercifully, put down, though much cruelty was in- 

*See Charlemont Papers. Part 2. 



16 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

flicted on both sides. Lord Cornwallis, who had been 
appointed both Commander-in-Chief and Lord-Lieu- 
tenant, was a conscientious statesman, and, as he had 
shown during the war with the United States, a fair 
if not a brilliant soldier. Though some of his acts 
may not have appeared merciful, he made a stand in 
Kildare, and in other Irish counties, to save the inno- 
cent blood. The Quaker family at Ballitore — where 
there still existed the school of the Shackletons, at 
which Edmund Burke and his brother received their 
early education — had no sympathy with either law- 
less violence or arbitrary oppression. But they ac- 
knowledged that Lord Cornwallis was animated by 
humane motives, speaking of him as "the good Lord 
Cornwallis.''* They had excellent opportunities of 
observation, being not far from places where some of 
the most ruthless scenes were enacted. 

It has been estimated that in the rebellion, of 
which it may be thought neither party had much rea- 
son to boast, a hundred and fifty thousand Irish and 
twenty thousand English were sacrificed. The 
French invasions, and attempted invasions, from 
which the rebellious Irish Protestants and Catholics 
hoped so much, were, it must be admitted, very poor 
affairs. They contributed greatly to keep the bad 
feeling on both sides alive, and to embitter it: but 
from either a military, or a patriotic point of view, 
their results were infinitesimal. 

The effect, however, was to convince a large num- 
ber of people that a union between Great Britain and 
Ireland had become a necessity. Very soon after 
the independence of the Irish Parliament had 
been conceded in 1Y82, under Lord Rockingham's 

*See the Leadbeater Papers. Volume 1. 



RETROSPECTIVE. 17 

second administration, observers began to doubt 
whether the two representative bodies, one at West- 
minster and the other at Dublin, could harmoniously 
exist together. Burke, who may be considered the 
adviser of the concession, when Paymaster of the 
Forces of that Ministry, afterwards doubted whether 
the Government had not gone too far. Mr. Pitt's 
Lord-Lieutenant, the Duke of Kutland, not long after 
the Irish Parliament had begun to exercise its inde^ 
pendent powers, expressed the opinion to his chief 
that a legislative union between the two islands 
afforded the only satisfactory solution of what had 
become a very difficult problem.* On the eve of 
the French Revolution the two legislatures differed 
on the question of the Regency, and, had the King's 
illness continued some years later, it might have pro- 
duced serious consequences. These are simply state- 
ments of facts: readers may draw from them their 
own conclusions. 

Another fact forces itself on the attention of those 
who look back to the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. It is that there could be no satisfactory 
parliamentary, or legislative union between the two 
islands so long as the large majority of the people of 
one of them laboured under either political or relig- 
ious disabilities. The assertion, which has been 
sometimes made, even very recently, that the Gov- 
ernment promoted the Irish rebellion with the object 
of carrying the Union as a recognised inevitability, is 
sufficiently refuted by the statement itself. The 
Duke of Portland, who was then Secretary of State 
for the Home Department, — which has had a great 
deal to do with Irish affairs — Mr. Pitt, the Prime 

. *See the Letters of the Duke of Butland. 



18 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Minister, and tlie successive Lord-Lieutenants and 
Irish Chief Secretaries, whatever may have been 
their faults or errors, were among the most honour- 
able of mankind. This even the most inveterate of 
their political enemies at that time would have 
admitted. 

The Act of Union dates from the first year of the 
present century. It closes an old era both in British 
and Irish history, and marks the beginning of a new 
one. When it was being passed pledges were doubt- 
less given by members of the Government that Cath- 
olic Emancipation should be an essential part of the 
Union, but comprised in a separate measure. Pitt, 
Avho had been some sixteen years Prime Minister, 
considered himself bound to carry out what he re- 
garded as an honourable understanding. He learnt, 
however, that, though he had rendered George the 
Third such signal services, he could not overcome 
the King's stubborn prejudices, encouraged as they 
were by many who hoped to profit by this Royal 
obstinacy. Under such circumstances Pitt found his 
great position unbearable. The Act of Union dates 
from the 1st of January, 1801. The resignation of 
the great Minister almost immediately followed. 
The administration of the late Speaker, Henry Add- 
ington, began in the March of the same year, and, 
with some changes, continued until the May of 1804. 

Notwithstanding the great naval victories of N^el- 
son and his brother admirals, the century, from a 
political point of view, may be said to have begun 
disastrously for England. The clouds on the horizon 
were dark and lowering, and were to become darker 
and darker. George the Third, ^^farmer George," 
as he was called, may have had some of the virtues 
of the farmer; b\it even what may be considered hia 



RETROSPECTIVE. 19 

virtues had the effect of the worst of crimes. 
^'George, be King," was the advice given to him by 
the narrow German Princess, his mother, and by her 
friend Lord Bute, who had graduated in the school 
of her late husband, the Prince of Wales. By that 
school Lord Bolingbroke's writings had been regarded 
as oracles. Their object was to magnify the Eoyal 
Prerogative at the expense of those constitutional lib- 
erties, which were considered to have been estab- 
lished, by what was known as the glorious revolution 
of 1688-89. 

George the Third and his advisers were responsi- 
ble for two great evils ; the American war, at the be- 
ginning of his reigTi, and, soon after its end, the agita- 
tion for the Repeal of the Union, which originated in 
the demand for Catholic Emancipation and became 
chronic. The United States separated from the 
Mother Country, to which the colonists had been ac- 
customed to refer as their ^'liome." They separated 
with bitter enmity in their hearts. Throughout the 
nineteenth century, till very recently, that enmity 
continued. The result was division, instead of unity, 
between the two great goA^ernments and people of 
the Anglo-Saxon race in the Old World and in the 
New. A similar result was produced in Ireland, and 
among the descendants of Irishmen in the two hemi- 
spheres, through statesmen and Parliaments submit- 
ting to the King's scruples about his coronation oath 
when the Act of Union was carried. Of George the 
Third as a sovereign, it may, indeed, be said, that the 
evil men do lives after them, the good is often in- 
terred with their bones. 



20 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTEK II. 



FIFTEEN YEAKS OF WAE. 



Xapoleoj^ had been declared first Consul just be- 
fore the eighteenth century ended. At the begin- 
ning of the nineteenth, a few months later, he de- 
feated the Austrians at Marengo; and two years 
afterwards was made Consul for life. This was 
only a stepping stone to the Empire. The peace of 
Amiens, like the peace of Ilyswick in the first year of 
the eighteenth century, was only regarded as a tem- 
porary truce. War broke out again, and burnt all 
the fiercer from the ashes under which it had been 
covered. The last ten years of the eighteenth cen- 
tury were nearly all years of war. The first fifteen 
years of the nineteenth, also, were nearly all occupied 
by war in Europe. !N^apol eon's ambition was bound- 
less: it grew by what it fed on. The century thus 
opened most inauspiciously for anything worthy of 
being called political progress. Soon after having 
been proclaimed Emperor, the Corsican Adventurer, 
as he continued to be called in England, was cro^vned 
by the Pope, and a few months later cro^vned King 
of Italy. The attempted invasion of England from 
Boulogne was a failure: but it was soon followed by 
the defeat of the Austrians and their allies at Auster- 
litz, of the Prussians at Jena, and of the Russians at 
Eylau. It w^as obvious that the great conqueror was 
aspiring to universal Empire. 



FIFTEEN YEARS OF WAR. 21 

While the continent seemed prostrate at !N'apo- 
leon's feet, England continued to fight on. Power- 
ful as he was by land, she continued to be as power- 
ful by sea. Wherever a ship could float, British 
maritime ascendency was felt and recognized. This 
was not disputed by the Emperor, who seemed to 
have all continental Europe at his feet. Even in 
continental Europe his power was challenged by Eng- 
land, who sought to free the Spanish peninsula from 
the French arms, and from the new monarchy under 
Joseph Bonaparte, the Emperor's not very brilliant 
brother. Wellington during three years continued 
steadily to advance, driving before him the best of 
^NTapoleon's Marshals, and in the October of 1813 
marched into France, while the army of jN^apoleon 
had been obliged to retreat most disastrously from 
Russia, many thousands of the seasoned veterans, 
whom he had so often led to victory, lying buried in 
the Russian sjiows. 

Europe, with the spectacle of such reverses, again 
sprang to its feet. Russia, Prussia, and Austria, 
seized the opportunity of a common deliverance, and 
advanced from the E^orth, and ISTorthwest on Paris, 
while Wellington advanced from Toulouse, notwith- 
standing an alleged temporary check, at that place, 
which induced the French afterwards to include 
Toulouse on the long roll of French victories some- 
what vaingloriously inscribed on the Arc de Tri- 
omphe. The allies entered Paris, and ISTapoleon was 
allowed to go to Elba. A few months afterwards he 
escaped, from what might be regarded as a prison, 
landed at Cannes, and the campaign of a hundred 
days began, ending in what Lord Byron called the 
great King-making victory of Waterloo. 

A great king-making victory it undoubtedly was. 



22 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

^^ It was a victory for Prussia," said a French gentle- 
man, indignantly, as he contemplated the monument 
to the Duke of Wellington in the Church near the 
field of Waterloo. I did not contradict him; but it 
was the British infantry that bore the burden and 
the heat of the day. They did more. They had at 
its beginning to go through the most trying of all 
ordeals, the desertion of their allies, the Belgians, 
and to close up the spaces in the ranks of the order of 
battle thus suddenly and unexpectedly made vacant. 

From the point of view of political progress, this 
long struggle against Napoleon had important con- 
sequences in England. The British had continued 
the struggle, while so many monarchies had been laid 
prostrate at ^N^apoleon's feet. From an early period 
in the war against revolutionary France, notwith- 
standing that millions of British gold had been 
thrown broadcast over Europe to induce those who 
were considered our allies to fight their own battles, 
Mr. Pitt and his colleagues found themselves de- 
serted by the governments they had paid, and had to 
fight almost alone. The people of the United King- 
dom thus became thoroughly self-reliant, and pre- 
pared to look almost the wliole world in the face. 

But during this long struggle there had been no 
extension of popular freedom. The parliamentary 
franchise was confined to a very limited class. A 
number of what wore called rotten boroughs belonged 
to proprietors, many of them noblemen, who re- 
garded these seats as their private property. "Have 
I not a right to do what I like ^\dth my own ?" were 
words reported as used, even many years afterwards, 
by the Duke of ^N'ewcastle, who returned Mr. Glad- 
stone for his pocket borough of N^ewark. During 
the long war the landlords had received high rents 



FIFTEEN YEARS OF WAR. 23 

in consequence of the higli prices. Food had, of 
course, been dear. There. had been a practical mon- 
opoly, and what was in effect a virtually prohibitive 
system. With the peace the ports became more or 
less open, and prices began to fall. To counteract 
this the Corn Laws were enacted. They were in the 
interests of the landlords, or, as was said, of the coun- 
try gentleman, but at the expense of the labouring 
multitudes of the large towns, which were gradually 
extending with the progress of the country. There 
was much discontent, resulting in popular demonstra- 
tions, one of which at Manchester, if rightly repre- 
sented, was of an alarming character, and was harshly 
suppressed. Peterloo was quoted against Waterloo. 
For many years the Government of the United King- 
dom was essentially Tory, of which the leading prin- 
ciples were to uphold the landed interest, to maintain 
the Catholic disabilities, and to oppose a reform of 
the House of Commons as a dangerous concession 
to democracy. 

Over continental Europe, with its monarchies de- 
pendent on armies which were said to have van- 
quished Napoleon, there soon arose the dark shadow 
of the Holy Alliance. This was a compact agreed 
to in the September of 1815, by the Emperors of 
Russia and of Austria and the King of Prussia. Its 
ostensible object was to bind the three sovereigns to 
be governed by Christian principles in their political 
transactions, with a view of perpetuating the peace 
which had just been established. Apparently nothing 
could have been more innocent. But in politics, 
words are too often one thing and acts another. 

The British Ministers would not commit them- 
selves and the Prince Regent to this Holy Alliance, 
which became the reverse of Holy. From the very 



24 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

first it was declared in England to be an alliance of 
arbitrary sovereigns to keep tlieir subjects under a 
despotic yoke. Reactionary as may have been Lord 
Liverpool, the Prime Minister, Lord Eldon, the 
Chancellor, Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, 
and, to a certain extent. Lord Castlereagh, the For- 
eign Secretary, they could not but recognise that they 
were ministers of a constitutional state, controlled 
by a parliament which had come down through many 
centuries, — a parliament which, if then on a some- 
what narrow basis, was not disposed to surrender its 
hereditary privileges as the Second and Third Estates 
of the Realm. 

The British Government, through Lord Castle- 
reagh as their representative, did, indeed, acquiesce 
in proceedings on tlie part of the military monarchies 
contrary to all popular ideas. Before the French 
sovereign had been re-established, and while the 
victorious armies were encamped round Paris, it is 
said that a project was put forward, in a more or less 
private manner, for partitioning France. This the 
Duke of Wellington is stated to have resisted. He 
was told that it was somewhat surprising that he 
should adopt such a tone as he had under him an army 
of only sixty thousand men. "I may have only 
sLxty thousand men," he is reported as answering, 
"but they can go any^vhere, and do anything.'' This 
was when he was at the head of the seasoned veterans, 
who had marched with him from Madrid to Paris. 
I^ot anticipating Xapoleon's escape from Elba, the 
British Ministers, at the conclusion of peace in 1814, 
had sent numbers of our best troops to America, and 
Wellington had to enter on the new campaign against 
Napoleon with many inexperienced soldiers, large 



FIFTEEN YEARS OF WAR. ^5 

numbers of them being militia who had never fired 
a shot in actual warfare. 

In the course of the earlier war when Austria made 
peace with France, and N^apoleon by the treaty of 
Campo Formio gave a large part of the territory of 
Venice to his defeated enemy, Edmund Burke, in 
one of his ''Letters on a Regicide Peace," remarked 
on the unwise and dangerous designs Austria had 
long entertained respecting Italy. What Austria 
first gained she had afterwards to relinquish, but 
only in 1814 to add all Venice to her Empire. 'No 
pretence was made of consulting the Venetians, or 
the other people, whose territories were taken away 
from their hereditary possessors and given to those 
who might with some reason be regarded as their 
hereditary enemies. Lord Castlereagh, when chal- 
lenged on this subject in the House of Commons, 
thought it sufficient to reply that the object was to 
give to one of these Powers more force, and increase 
of population was that force. But the increase of an 
empire by annexing to it an unwilling, and even a 
hostile population, seldom adds to the strength of a 
state. This assuredly Austria herself has found in 
the long course of the present century. Morality 
cannot always be disassociated from politics with im- 
punity. Burke in the earlier part of his political 
career justly said that politics were only the common 
principles of morality enlarged, and that he did not 
then, and never would, admit of any other view.* Fox 
thus derived from his old friend the aphorism often 
quoted, that what is morally wrong can never be 
politically right. JSTapoleon in his continual wars 

* Letter to Dr. Markham, Bishop of Chester. Works and 
Correspondence. Vol. 1, 1772. 



26 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

had no idea of extending the principles of human 
freedom. He would have laughed to scorn the 
Eights of Man, on which, though called the child of 
the Revolution, he remorselessly set his foot. The 
victorious allies, as they considered themselves by 
the arbitrary arrangements at the Congress of Vienna, 
and by the establishment of the Holy Alliance, acted 
in the same despotic spirit as the great conqueror, to 
whom they had in former years to make the most 
humiliating submissions. 

The first thirty years of the nineteenth century 
can scarcely be said to represent political progress 
at all. The world appeared to be going backward 
instead of forward. Lord Byron, whose sympathies 
were Liberal, prophesied that "This will not endure, 
nor be endured." He was right: but it continued 
far into the century. Power contended against the 
^vill of the people : might against right. Carlyle has 
thought fit to state that the Mights of Man will ulti- 
mately be found the Rights of Man. This may very 
much depend on the interpretation given to the some- 
what dogmatic words. Those who have the power 
can give to the words their own practical application, 
and this will generally be found in accordance with 
their own interests, or at least their presumed inter- 
ests, of Avhich they may be the irresponsible judges. 

'No sovereign had a more difficult task than Louis 
the Eighteenth, who was restored to the throne of 
his ancestors by the armies of Russia, Germany, and 
England. Paris was regarded as held by their swords, 
as, indeed, was all France. It has been said that the 
Bourbons, after the restoration of the Monarchy, 
had learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. This 
phrase, so often quoted, is true when applied to them 
generally, and to their most violent adherents not 



FIFTEEN YEARS OF WAR. 27 

only in France, but in those reactionary days in 
Spain and Italy. It is scarcely, however, true of 
Louis the Eighteenth, who showed that he had learnt 
something, and had some regard for constitutional 
principles. lie was surrounded by men who would 
keep no terms with public freedom, by whom, indeed, 
all freedom was looked upon as treason to the restored 
monarchy. Louis the Eighteenth was not allowed 
fair play by his brother, the Count of Artois, to 
whose breeches, in the early time of the Revolution, 
it has pleased Mr. Carlyle to give such great promi- 
nence. The Spanish revolution was put down by a 
French army, commanded by the Count's eldest son, 
in the Spring of 1823, and Ferdinand the Seventh, 
under such auspices, returned to Madrid, and ruled in 
the most absolute fashion. 

Where then was political progTess ? In the fol- 
lowing year Louis the Eighteenth died, and the 
Count of Artois, under the title of Charles the Tenth, 
became the despotic sovereign of France. But 
French journalism, in its modern sense, had risen 
with the Doctrinaires. At its head at first were 
Guizot, Villemain and others, and a few years later 
Thiers, who became the editor of the National, 
In these men, who were still young, were concen- 
trated the best hopes of France. It was a struggle 
between them and the government of Charles the 
Tenth, which, under the Prince de Polignac, became 
more reactionary than ever. 

To these eminent journalists, full of youth and 
hope, France owed much even in the reactionary time. 
Charles the Tenth and Prince de Polignac were 
blind to their actual situation. This was a strange 
contrast to the early days of the French Revolu- 
tion. Between 1789 and 1829 there was, it might 



28 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

be" said, nothing in common ; but extremes naturally, 
and almost inevitably, produce extremes. The Cham- 
bers opposed the King and his Ministers. They 
were dissolved. The electors gave a new Chamber 
of Deputies. The five ordinances were published 
from St. Cloud, suspending the liberty of the Press, 
dissolving the new Chamber, altering the system 
of election so that absolute power might be 
secured, convoking another Chamber, and making 
ultra-Royalist appointments to the Council of State. 
Still the young journalists, under great difficulties, 
struggled on as best they could. Mr. Disraeli, at a 
later time, thought fit to express the opinion that an 
enlightened despotism and a free Press might to- 
gether form the beau ideal of government. But 
they represent opposite and contradictory principles, 
and never can permanently exist together. It would 
be just as unreasonable to expect that the wolf and 
the lamb could harmoniously co-operate. 

During these sad, long years, from the fall of the 
Napoleonic Empire and the Congress of Vienna, it 
was not, however, all absolute darkness. In the 
later time some political progress might be dimly 
discerned, where it was, perhaps, the least expected. 

A movement for the independence of Greece had 
begun, and continued for several years. It was 
hoped by patriots, in many lands, that the modern 
Greeks might show some of the spirit of those who 
were called their fathers. Marathon and Missolon- 
ghi were coupled together. Por the independence of 
Greece, Lord Byron may be represented as having 
sacrificed his life. The Porte at that time was 
thought to have no friends. Pussia was believed to 
be watching for what Peter the Great had pointed 
out to be her destined prey. But the Duke of Wei- 



FIFTEEN YEARS OF WAR. 29 

lington was sent to St. Petersburg to endeavour to 
come to some understanding about a mediation by 
England in the differences between the Turks and 
the Greeks. At last, however, France, Russia, and 
England, agreed to combine in their maritime opera- 
tions against the Porte. The result was that the 
Turkish fleet, though strengthened by Mehemet All's 
from Egypt, was destroyed. This was going further 
than the British Ministers had intended; and the 
naval battle of N^avarino was officially declared to 
be ^^an untoward event.'' Untoward in effects it 
was: and this the friends of Turkey continued long 
afterwards to acknowledge and deplore. Greece to 
a limited extent acquired more or less of an inde- 
pendence; but it was an independence which was 
jealously watched by more than one great Power, and 
was not allowed to develop. 

There was still another gleam of light. Despotism 
had been restored in Spain by a French army of a 
hundred thousand men, — one far larger than Wel- 
lington had employed in vindicating against Napoleon 
and his Marshals the independence of that peninsula. 
The Spanish colonies in South America had taken 
the opportunity of asserting their independence. 
Canning seized the retaliatory opportunity of ac- 
knowledging that independence, while the French 
Army v/as in Spain. He thought that he had per- 
formed a great political masterpiece. He said: "I 
called a l^ew World into existence to redress the 
balance of the Old." Honourable members who 
heard this announcement stared at one another. One 
of them has recorded that on hearing those words 
he was astonished and knew not what to think. Can- 
ning's boast was a somewhat vainglorious one. The 
ISTew World, in a political sense, had been called into 



30 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

existence by the war with the British colonies, end- 
ing in the establishment of the United States of 
I^orth America. The South American States, which 
Canning asserted that he had called into being to re- 
dress the balance of the Old World, have had no such 
effect. They can scarcely be said to have been polit- 
ical successes at all. Spain left them an evil legacy, 
from which none of them can be considered to have 
fully emancipated itself. For many years there was 
a continuance of misgovernment in some of them: 
there has been no steady improvement: scarcely any 
healthy political development. It is in E'orth Amer- 
ica, not in the South, and in the British colonies, that 
we must look for healthy political progress. 

In France, too, there was suddenly a great change. 
Charles the Tenth had depended on the army to put 
down any disturbances in Paris. But Marshal Mar- 
mont, who commanded the troops, disapproved of the 
^ve ordinances, and was reluctant to employ force 
against the insurgents. The Bevolution of the three 
days of July began on the 27th. The barricades 
were erected. On the 29th two regiments fraternized 
with the people, and there were indications that 
others would follow the example. The people became 
mastei-s of the Louvre and the Tuileries. Charles 
the Tenth offered from St. Cloud to make concessions 
which the day before he had refused. But the fatal 
words, ^'Too late,'' so often heard in similar circum- 
stances, were pronounced. Paris had the most pacific 
of its revolutions up to that time, and the former idol, 
Lafayette, now an old man, was placed at the head of 
the E'ational Guard. Thiers and Mignet, the young 
journalists, called on the people to make the Duke 
of Orleans, the son of Philippe Egalite, King, and he 
declared his acceptance of the Lieutenant-Generalship 



FIFTEEN YEARS OF WAR. ;gi 

of France, from which there was but a step to plac- 
ing upon his head the crown of a constitutional 
monarchy. 

This was hailed as political progress indeed. So 
it was. It came from where it was least expected, 
and from where there had been already great and 
even terrible revolutions. It was hailed in England 
especially with enthusiasm. The question was nearly 
everywhere asked: ^Was France to lead the way 
in steady and beneficent political progress, and Eng- 
land, the recognized home of constitutional govern- 
ment, to be content to stand still ?" 



32 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTEK III. 



A SUDDEN CHANGE. 



George the Fourth died in the June of 1830. 
This was little more than a month before Louis 
Philippe became King of France, or, as may be more 
correctly said, King of the French. Of George the 
Fourth's character it is not necessary to say much, or 
indeed anything. In his younger days, as Prince of 
Wales, he had been the friend of Sheridan, Fox, and 
the Whigs, though scarcely of Burke, who was seldom 
seen at Carlton House. He was not supposed to have 
the scruples of his father with respect to the Corona- 
tion oath, or, indeed, to have any religious scruples at 
all. As King, however, he raised the same objections 
to Roman Catholic Emancipation, or, as it used to be 
said, to a "Catholic Prime Minister." Ministers 
favourable to the removal of the Catholic disabilities 
were called Catholics, a distinction being drawn 
between them and their Anti-Pomanist colleagues. 

On the death of Lord Liverpool, in the April of 
1827, Canning claimed the premiership as his by 
inheritance. George the Fourth reluctantly sub- 
mitted to this claim. The Duke of Wellington and 
Sir Robert Peel retired from the Administration 
rather than serve under a Prime Minister favourable 
to the removal of the religious disabilities. The 
Duke, in fact, wanted to be Prime Minister him- 
self, though the pretension was never openly avowed. 



A SUDDEN CHANGE. 33 

In communicating His positive refusal to serve 
under Canning as Prime Minister, Peel vs^rote: 
" For the period of eleven years I have been 
connected with the administration over which Lord 
Liverpool presided. Six of those years I was Chief 
Secretary for Ireland, and for the remaining five, 
Secretary of State for the Home Department. In 
each office I was in immediate contact with Irish 
affairs, and deeply responsible for their administra- 
tion. During the whole of that period — indeed dur- 
ing the whole of my public career — I have taken 
a very active and prominent part in opposition to 
the Catholic claims, and, acting in unison with the 
head of the government of which I was a member, 
can I see the whole influence and authority of Prime 
Minister transferred from Lord Liverpool to you, with- 
out a conviction that the sanguine hopes of the Cath- 
olics will be excited, and that the Catholic question 
will be materially affected by the change ?"* 

This is a remarkable letter. It cannot be too 
attentively considered, both from what preceded and 
what followed. Just two years after it was written. 
Peel himself proposed, and carried, the Catholic 
Emancipation Bill through the House of Commons; 
and the Prime Minister, his colleague the Duke of 
Wellington, secured the passing of the measure by the 
House of Lords. It was the beginning on the part 
of Peel, and of those who were afterwards as his 
followers called the Peelites, of many inconsistencies ; 
not, indeed, always so sudden and so startling, but 
quite as contradictory of their former professions and 
principles. 

*Stapleton's George Canning and his Times. 1827. Page 
592. 

3 



34 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

In advocating the Catliolic Relief Bill in the House 
of Commons, Peel pointed out that for years, and 
notably in 1826, some of the largest county and other 
constituencies, had been on the side of the removal of 
the disabilities. The same evidence, however, was 
before him when he wrote his letter to Canning, who, 
when he accepted office as Prime Minister, was a 
dying man. He only survived Lord Liverpool two 
months, having at the funeral of the latter contracted 
a cold from which he never recovered. P6el did not 
show Canning much consideration or forbearance 
during the two months of his premiership. Some 
seventeen years later, when Peel made his great 
change from Protection to Free Trade, Lord George 
Bentinck, Canning's relative, accused him of having 
hounded his noble kinsman to death. In this lan- 
guage there was doubtless considerable exaggeration, 
as there was at that time in Mr. Disraeli's attacks on 
Peel. But it may be thought that these sudden 
changes by statesmen from one set of principles to 
another, have not generally an elevating effect on the 
public mind. To persist in hopeless error may be 
inexcusable. But in the teachers of mankind, the 
leaders of public opinion, some earnest and definite 
convictions may be thought desirable, as conducive 
to political morality, and therefore to political pro- 
gress. As has been stated, men of great eminence 
ought to know before they undertake to teach. To 
teach is to lead, and not to follow. 

The Poman Catholic Association on an extended 
scale, embracing the whole Irish Catholic people and 
their clergy, had been organized six years before under 
O'Connell. It was, however, almost as formidable 
when Peel refused to take office under Canning, as it 
was in the August of 1829. In the preceding year, 



A SUDDEN CHANGE. 35 

indeed, O'Connell had been elected for the County of 
Clare in defiance of the law. In one sense his return 
might be regarded as idle bravado : but it produced a 
considerable effect on public opinion. There were 
whispers that the Roman Catholic soldiers, of whom 
there were a considerable body in the army, could 
not be trusted. IsTot for the first time in Ireland 
nor for the last time, there seemed to many politi- 
cal observers the portents of civil war. Some words 
used by the Duke of Wellington have often been 
quoted : ^^My Lords, most of my life has been spent 
in fields of war, and of civil war, too: but to save 
my country from a few hours of civil war I would 
gladly lay my life down.'' It may be retorted that 
statesmen in high position, that great warriors 
and conquerors, ought to recognize the bent of public 
opinion and the inevitable tendency of political pro- 
gress, before making their choice between civil war, 
or granting great and desirable reforms. 

Lord John Russell, who was rising to eminence as a 
political leader, had succeeded in repealing the Test 
and Corporation Acts the previous year, notwith- 
standing the opposition of Peel and Wellington at the 
head of the Government. This showed that public 
opinion on certain questions was steadily advancing. 
But so long as the Catholic disabilities were retained, 
a large amount of Protestant opinion and prejudice 
would naturally be in favour of a Tory, and what 
might be regarded as a No-Popery Administration. 
When, however. Peel and Wellington gave way on 
what many people in Great Britain regarded as a vital 
question, they alienated many of their followers, l^ot 
long afterwards, young William Ewart Gladstone, in 
the Oxford Union, proposed and carried a vote of 
censure on his future friend, Sir Robert Peel, for 



36 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

having removed tlie Catholic disabilities. Gladstone 
did not foresee that later he v^oiild himself follow 
his leader in a sudden change of opinion while in 
office, and afterwards by another great change alter 
in no small degree the relations of parties and of 
public men to one another. 

But the great question of Reform, after the repeal 
of the Catholic disabilities, did not at first make much 
apparent advance. It was maturing by degrees, but 
not at first with much open manifestation. We find, 
for instance, Macaulay, in his Essay on Hallam's 
Constitutional History of England, published in the 
September of 1828, stating that it was only at inter- 
vals the demand 'for Parliamentary Reform became 
loud and vehement. ^'But," he added, ''it seems to us 
that during the remissions, the feeling gathers 
strength, and that every successive burst is more vio- 
lent than that which preceded it. The public atten- 
tion may for a time be diverted to the Catholic claims, 
or the Mercantile code : but it is probable that at no 
very distant time, perhaps in the lifetime of the pres- 
ent generation, all other questions will merge in that 
which, in a certain degree, is connected with them 
all." 

It is obvious that when the brilliant historian and 
essayist spoke of such a crisis on the Reform question 
being likely to occur during his generation, he did not 
imagine that the storm would burst in about two years. 
When he ventured to anticipate that his generation 
might have to act and suffer in it, he did not foresee 
that the time for acting and suffering in it was close at 
hand. He did not foresee that before three years had 
gone, he would himself be a Liberal member of Parlia- 
ment, speaking with great rhetorical ability in favour 
of the first Reform Bill of Lord Grey's Administra- 



A SUDDEN CHANGE. 37 

tion. A constitutional monarcliy had been set up in 
France, and the people of the British Isles suddenly 
awoke to the immediate importance and necessity of 
Parliamentary Reform, which included so many other 
things. This was, indeed, political progress. A new 
Parliament met in the October of 1830. In that 
Parliament were the Irish Catholic members, under 
O'Connell. This was in itself the beginning of a 
great change. There were now a new Sovereign, a 
new House of Commons, a new set of members, pro- 
fessing more or less to sympathise with the Whigs, or, 
as they began to be called, the Liberals. King Wil- 
liam the Fourth was thought to be a much more con- 
stitutional sovereign than his brother, or father, had 
been. But even then the Ministers, with the Duke 
of Wellington and Peel at their head, were dead to 
the signs of the times. In answer to Lord Grey's com- 
plaint that no mention of Reform was made in the 
Royal Speech, the Duke of Wellington declared him- 
self against all schemes of Parliamentary Reform. He 
would have nothing to do with any of them: the con- 
stitution was perfect: so far as he and his colleagues 
were concerned, the sacred Ark should remain un- 
touched. 

It has been said that Peel, in private, disapproved of 
the Prime Minister's speech. We have, however, 
principally to do with the public acts of leading minis- 
ters and statesmen, and not with their alleged private 
thoughts. In the House of Commons Peel was, and 
continued to be, the leader of a government opposed 
to all Parliamentary Reform, till the country, by this 
resistance, was suddenly driven to the verge of revolu- 
tion. He was the leader of the House of Commons, 
when, in the preceding session, he opposed Lord John 
Russell's moderate proposal that certain seats which 



38 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

had become vacant, should be given to the large and 
populous towns of Liverpool, Birmingham, and Man- 
chester, and not to places which had only a nominal 
population. Nothing can be said in excuse for such 
fatuous short-sightedness. Even the reluctant con- 
cession of Catholic Emancipation, instead of encour- 
aging Wellington and Peel to advance on the path of 
Parliamentary Reform, appeared only to have made 
them do what they could to bar the way, and become 
more stubborn and reactionary. 

Lord Chatham had been in favour of increasing the 
independent county representation at the expense of 
the rotten boroughs. His son, in his earlier political 
days, had also been a Reformer : but allowed his zeal 
in the cause gradually to decline, as his Ministry be- 
came more or less Tory, especially during the French 
Revolution. Fox and his immediate followers con- 
tinued professed Reformers. Burke, indeed, who 
had never forgotten the Gordon riots, had stood aloof 
from the cause, while to the last an ardent friend of 
Catholic Emancipation. But some thirty-four years 
had gone by since his death, and the French Revolu- 
tion had passed away like a dream. 

Under the new government, Lord John Russell, in 
the comparatively subordinate position of Paymaster 
of the Forces, brought in the first Reform Bill of Lord 
Grey's Cabinet, of which he was not at that time a 
member. That Bill is now regarded as having been 
a moderate measure. It proposed to confer the fran- 
chise on the ten pound householders in the boroughs, 
and on the leaseholders and free-holders in the 
counties. The Earl of Durham, Lord Grey's son-in- 
law, had previously sought to go much further, even 
to the length of giving that household suffrage^ which, 




DANIEI. O'CONNEIvI.. 



13 



A SUDDEN CHANGE. 39 

almost a generation afterwards was granted by Mr. 
Disraeli, for the purpose of "dishing the Whigs." 

Lord John Russell, in introducing the Reform Bill 
of the Ministry, was almost appalled by the proposals 
which were practically his own. He explained, al- 
most with bated breath, that the effect of the Bill 
would be to introduce half a million of electors into 
the constituencies. Half a million of electors! 
"This is not Reform : this is Revolution," exclaimed 
members of the opposition. Their newspapers, of 
course, echoed this cry. Mr. John Wilson Croker, 
who had been known as the Conservative Secretary of 
the Admiralty, but who now under Lord Down- 
shire's patronage represented the Ulster borough of 
Downpatrick, began in the "Quarterly Review" a 
series of articles against Reform, against it may be 
said all political progress. Those articles now form a 
curious study. Mr. Croker was afterwards somewhat 
unmercifully sketched in "Coningsby," as the Right 
Hon. Nicholas Rigby, Rigby being one of the Duke 
of Bedford's very unscrupulous adherents in the 
early part of George the Third's reign. It is quite 
true that Mr. Croker, like Mr. Disraeli's Rigby, did 
not care even to sit in the Reformed House of Com- 
mons. The small borough of Downpatrick was pre- 
served, and with the landlord influence strong in Ire- 
land, Croker might, had he pleased, still have contin- 
ued to sit in the House of Commons. He had been, 
and was still regarded as the agent of the Marquis of 
Hertford. But he and those who shared his views 
were no believers in anything which could be called 
political progress. 

It is no part of the object of this volume to look at 
the various political questions associated with political 
progress from a party point of view. But no person, 



4:0 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

whatever may be his or her political opinions, would 
now think of denying that the reform of the repre- 
sentation as carried by Lord Grey's Government 
had a Conservative effect. It attached at least the 
middle classes to the State, and laid the foundation 
of a still broader franchise, which was slowly allowed 
to mature. 

Many years afterwards, Mr. Gladstone was taunted 
by his rival with having been at this time, in the 
Oxford Union, one of the most earnest champions of 
the rotten boronghs. As has already been said, he 
had been, in the same arena, the opponent of Catholic 
Emancipation. The fact was not denied. In the 
course of the debates on the Reform measures, it was 
often stated that after they were carried the House 
of Commons would no longer be a place for gentle- 
men. When this and other statements of a similar 
character were made, and protested against in a some- 
what indignant manner by the supporters of the Bills, 
those who uttered the criticisms took care to refer to 
the interruptions as even by anticipation justifying 
their truth. Coming events were represented to be 
casting their shadows before. Many very able young 
men had OAved their introduction to parliamentary 
life through what might be called the back-door of the 
Constitution. That entrance was about to be closed, 
not always, perhaps, with advantage. But some of 
the large constituencies have shown as much dis- 
crimination as many of the noble patrons of the old 
pocket boroughs, in the candidates returned. 

In the manner in which the English Reform Bill, 
which virtually included its sisters, was carried, there 
was something not very constitutional in character. 
The defeat of the great Coalition Ministry of Fox and 



A SUDDEN CHANGE. 41 

!N^orth was brought about by tbe interference of 
George the Third ; who wrote a letter, which was to be 
shown by Lord Temple to wavering Peers, stating that 
His Majesty would regard as his personal enemies 
those who supported what was called Fox's India Bill, 
which was really drafted from Burke's notes.* This 
proceeding, to which Pitt owed his first and long 
Premiership, had always been condemned by the 
Whigs as most unconstitutional. E^ow, when for the 
first time for forty-eight years after that act on the 
part of the sovereign they had a large majority sup- 
porting the Reform Bill in the House of Commons, 
against the majority of the House of Lords, they per- 
mitted the King to appeal to many of the Conservative 
Peers to absent themselves from the House of Lords, 
and thus allow the measure to become law. This was 
the alternative adopted to avoid the creation of a num- 
ber of new Peers : but many people may still think that 
of the two proposed expedients, the worse was acted 
upon by William the Pourth, with at least the ac- 
quiescence of a great reforming Whig Administra- 
tion. Lord John Russell had misgivings with respect 
to the manner in which the measure was carried. 
There was, as he has left on record, nothing very digni- 
fied in a majority "afraid to appear, and skulking in 
clubs and country houses in the face of a measure, 
which had attracted the ardent sympathy of public 
opinion.'' 

The step was excused on account of the intention. 
It enabled the great Reform Bill to pass, and it did 
pass. "Gratitude to Earl Grey," was the cry of the 
Liberals at the general election; and it was almost too 

*See Worlcs and Correspondence. Volume 2. 



4:2 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

fully answered. The new Reformed Parliament, in 
which the popular voice received full expression, met 
on January the 29th, 1833. The Liberal leader. Lord 
Althorp, found himself supported by four hundred 
and eighty-five members. The great Tory Party, 
which had been more or less dominant for half a 
century, and, during the first twenty-nine years of 
the present century had appeared more opposed to 
progress than it had been since it was led by Harley 
and Bolingbroke under the influence of the country 
gentlemen, and the October Club, was only repre- 
sented on the Opposition benches by a hundred and 
seventy members. This was a change, indeed. It 
exceeded all anticipations. It alarmed some of those 
who w^ere most anxious to use it to further the cause 
of political progress. They said to one another, "We 
are too strong. '^ A new era had begun. Would the 
old institutions of the country stand the storm which 
appeared to be gathering round them? This was a 
question to be determined, with some others of great, 
if not equal, importance. 



PROGRESSIVE MEASURES. 43 



CHAPTEK IV. 

PROGKESSIVE MEASURES. 

"Gratitude to Earl Grey'' might return a ma- 
jority to support a government, but it could not long 
be tbe motive force for carrying on the government. 
The cry of "measures and not men" had been always 
popular with the Root and Branch politicians of an 
earlier time. The name had now been changed for 
that of Radical, which Mr. Bright, even while repre- 
senting Radical Birmingham, declared that he never 
liked. 

Charles, Earl Grey, who had been so often char- 
acterised and toasted as the friend of Charles Fox, 
was almost the antithesis of a Radical. In his man- 
ners he was essentially aristocratic, cold, reserved, 
and when opposed, somewhat haughty. When the 
House of Lords was threatened by some of his own 
professed supporters, he declared that he would stand 
by his Order. He had his Order, and of it he was 
proud. He was in no respect a leveller. He had 
shown much ability when the majority was against 
him in the great aristocratic assembly. Liberals like 
Macaulay, who had been returned for Leeds in the 
new parliament, listened to him with pride until the 
morning sun streamed through the windows of the 
House of Lords, and gave their tribute to the great 
orator and statesman, though he was not the foremost 
in the last generation. But with the carrying of the 



4-4 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Reform measures his work appeared to be done, his 
occupation to be gone.* The new generation de- 
sired political progress that was not merely of a party 
character. Social questions demanded recognition. 
One of these of the greatest importance was dealt with 
during the first session of the Reformed Parliament. 
This was the Abolition of Slavery throughout the 
British Colonies, the promotion of industry among the 
freed slaves, and the payment as compensation to their 
former owners of twenty millions sterling. If ever 
there was a measure which marked an era in political 
progress this was surely one. Burke, Fox, Pitt, 
Sheridan, and Wilberf orce, had been earnest advocates 
for the removal of this blot on the constitutional free- 
dom of the growing British Empire. To the assertion 
that slaves were happy, Burke had indignantly replied: 
^^There can never be a happy slave except in a de- 
graded man." Earl Grey himself, as Lord Howick, 
after succeeding Fox as Foreign Secretary, carried 
through Parliament, in association with Wilberforce, 
the Act abolishing the slave trade. The JSTorman 
vassals, or villeins, were regarded as chattels. 
By that marvellous ruler, Alfred the Great, laws re- 
specting the sale of slaves had been made in Saxon 
times. Queen Elizabeth sought to make her bonds- 
men free in the western counties. But from the time 
serfdom was extinguished in 1660, notwithstanding 
the teachings of Christianity, slow progress was made 
on the question of slavery even in England, until 
the memorable judgment of Lord Mansfield, in the 
Court of Queen's Bench, in the Somerset case, de- 
claring that slavery could not exist in Great Britain. 

*See Macaulay's Essay on Warren Hastings. 



PROGRESSIVE MEASURES. 45 

An Act passed during the first session of the Reformed 
Parliament worthily extended this great constitution- 
al principle to the British colonies, and it was after- 
wards, though somewhat tardily, followed by the aboli- 
tion of slavery in the East Indies. Some years later 
the flight of a slave named Anderson, from the United 
States to Canada, and a demand for his surrender, 
raised an important issue. He had killed a planter. 
The Canadian judges declared that by law Anderson 
should be given up: but a writ of Habeas Corpus was 
obtained for his appearance in the Court of Queen's 
Bench. The release was granted on technical 
grounds. 

Thus the Reform Era was happily inaugurated by 
the complete abolition of slavery. Enormous sums 
of money, which, however, have never been regretted, 
have been expended to put down what may be regarded 
as slavery upon the seas. Only very recently, in the 
newly acquired island of Zanzibar, given up by Ger- 
many in return for the cession of Heligoland, an objec- 
tion was made that the British officials had recognized 
the slave trade: but in this charge there does not ap- 
pear to have been anything serious. On the question 
of slavery great progress was made in the first half 
of the century. The British flag in the United King- 
dom, and throughout the wide dominions of the Brit- 
ish Empire, represents a Power hostile to the existence 
of slavery in every form. In this respect political 
progress has been a great fact. 

The education of the people also began to be recog- 
nised as a duty of the Government. The Irish E'a- 
tional School system, when first instituted by the then 
Mr. Stanley, as Irish Chief Secretary, with the co- 
operation of the Protestant Archbishop Whately and 



46 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

the Roman Catholic Archbishop Murray, was pro- 
fessedly non-sectarian. The object was to unite 
Protestant and Catholic children on the same benches, 
and by teaching them together make them understand 
one another better. But the principle can scarcely 
be said to have been carried out according to the in- 
tentions of its author. The Irish National Schools, 
imder a large number of clerical managers, have al- 
Vi^ays been more or less denominational. 

In England, Sunday Schools, and a Sunday School 
Union, had been formed some tAventy years before the 
close of the eighteenth century. Many denomina- 
tional schools in connection with the various churches 
had been established. Joseph Lancaster, a young 
Quaker, had set about instructing the poor, — a duty 
which bishops and statesmen could scarcely be said as 
yet to have recognised. By the appointment of the 
Charity Commission Lord Brougham may claim to 
have had much to do with the beginning of popular 
education. His well-known words: ''The school- 
master is abroad'^ became a great fact. Later, Mr. 
John Arthur Roebuck might claim a similar honour, 
though with respect to the question he did not show 
a steady consistency. Mechanics Institutes were 
being gradually set up in all the more important 
towns, and began to do a great work. Though 
popular education by the State had indeed been 
recognised in Ireland, in England State education 
was still at a somewhat remote distance. Numbers 
of people maintained that to educate the poor, was not 
to improve them, but to make them dissatisfied with 
their lot in life. It was unpleasant to these short- 
sighted people to hear the word education applied to 



PROGRESSIVE MEASURES. 4,7 

those who had not means from their families, or from 
t>ther private sources, to educate themselves. 

Lord Althorp's Poor Law Amendment Act, which 
was passed in the session of 1834, was also an impor- 
tant step both in political progress and social reform. 
It recognized a serious economic grievance in a great 
and progressive country, where one person in every 
seven was a pauper. A great deal more was yet to be 
done. But there was soon a great reduction in the 
Poor Rate, and by the change in what was called the 
Law of Settlement of the poor, the workmen, to adopt 
their own language, were afterwards to follow their 
work. 

Ireland, however, was already beginning to be 
acknowledged as the great difficulty of a Pef orming 
Administration. On the formation of Lord Grrey's 
Ministry, after the general election f ollomng on the 
passing of the Reform Act, the King in a speech 
from the Throne expressed the hope that the Houses 
would co-operate with his Grovernment in preserving 
and maintaining order in Ireland, and in strengthen- 
ing the Union between the two countries. The words 
in which this intimation was announced were signifi- 
cant. The Act of Union had been carried by Pitt 
and the Tory party. If Burke had lived it is almost 
certain that he would have opposed the measure, 
unless accompanied by Catholic Emancipation, with- 
out which, as he wrote to an Irish correspondent. 
Union was impossible. His friend French Lawrence, 
and many of Fox's party, including Sheridan, had 
opposed the Bill. It could scarcely have been ac- 
cepted by the Whigs until the words were formally 
put by them into the King's speech. Canning, 
who, of course, supported the Act of Union, when it 



48 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

was first recommended to Repeal it, exclaimed : ^'Re- 
peal the Union! Restore the Heptarchy!" When 
O'Connell found himself at the head of his Catholic 
followers, his attitude to the Whig Ministers was the 
reverse of friendly. In the debate on the address 
in answer to the King's message, he attacked the 
Government with great vehemence. Macaulay re- 
plied to his speech Avith much spirit, and brought 
forward strong arguments in support of the Act of 
Union, which O'Connell had not especially men- 
tioned. In the course of the four nights' debate it 
was fully understood that all the Ministers accepted 
the Union, which had now become the recognised 
policy of the Reform Cabinet. O'Connell moved an 
amendment to the Address: but it was defeated by 
four hundred and twenty-eight votes to forty. 

The Irish question now assumed the great promi- 
nence which it was destined so long to maintain. A 
Coercion Bill was introduced, and carried. An Irish 
Tithes Bill, not exactly on the same lines as the Eng- 
lish Act, was carried through the House of Commons, 
but was thrown out by the Lords. The Ministers 
at last declared their intention of dealing with what 
were called the surplus revenues of the Irish Church 
Establishment, in which it was said there were 
eight millions of money for a Protestant Episcopal 
population of only eight hundred thousand, ISToth- 
ing, however, was yet positively heard of Irish Dis- 
establishment. It will be seen, indeed, when this 
question did become pressing some thirty-four years 
afterwards, that Lord John Russell declined to deal 
with it, on account of the ^'heartburnings" he thought 
it would cause. When I had a conversation with 
him still later, in Belfast, he was anxious to act on a 
policy of concurrent endowment, or what was called 



PROGRESSIVE MEASURES. 49 

levelling up, instead of levelling down, in order, as 
he thought, to save the doomed Irish Church Estab- 
lishment. Where political progress has been, and 
is, on this Irish question, all readers will determine 
according to their own ideas. It is remarkable that 
when O'Connell moved his amendment to the Ad- 
dress in reply to the King's Message, though evi- 
dently in favour of two separate legislatures, he was 
not opposed to having only one government for the 
two islands. 

The position of Lord Grey's Cabinet in having, al- 
most from the first, to become coercionists, was 
doubtless most unfortunate. Even the Irish Tithes 
Bill, and the Irish Municipal Bill, were not regarded 
as sufficient atonement by O'Connell. He spoke of 
the base, bloody, and brutal Whigs, with whom, how- 
ever, when they went into Opposition to Sir Bobert 
Peel's short administration, an alliance was arranged 
at a meeting, called the Lichfield House compact, 
which existed for seven years, until the fall of Lord 
Melbourne's Government. 

Though this alliance was denounced, it is not easy 
to see how it could have been avoided. O'Connell, 
though he became the head of the Bepeal move- 
ment, generally regarded himself as a Liberal. He 
had undoubtedly Liberal sympathies. The Irish 
Tithes Bill, the Irish Municipal Bill, and the Irish 
Poor Law Bill, could scarcely be considered revolu- 
tionary or confiscatory measures. They at least, 
whatever may be thought of the Bepeal question, 
could not be represented as retrogressive, and not in 
the direction of political progress. They were de- 
manded by the circumstances of the time. The 
famous Appropriation Clause, subsequently to Mr. 
Ward's earlier amendment, was associated with the 



50 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

name of Lord John Russell, as leader of the Govern- 
ment in the House of Commons after Lord Grey's 
resignation, and Lord Althorp's elevation to the 
House of Peers on the death of his father. Lord 
Spencer. It roused strong Protestant opposition, 
especially among the supporters of the old ascendency 
in Ireland, who were proud, and to a certain extent 
still are proud, of calling themselves, through some 
of their newspapers, a garrison. 

To protest against the Appropriation Clause a 
great meeting under the presidentship of the Mar- 
quis of Downshire, was held at Hillsborough in the 
October of 1834. The Protestants of both the great 
Ulster denominations attended. The Rev. Dr. 
Cooke, the recognized Presbyterian leader, made 
common cause with the members of the Irish Es- 
tablishment, and, in words which were long remem- 
bered and quoted, publicly proclaimed the bands of 
marriage between the two Churches. 

Up to this time many of the Presbyterian clergy, 
and large numbers of the Presbyterian laity, had 
been Liberals. They had, indeed, gone further than 
ordinary Liberals, or Whigs, as the seventeenth cen- 
tury was closing. But there was now a perceptible 
change in their attitude. This was not unnatural con- 
sidering the Repeal agitation under O'Connell, who 
had a simple way of accounting for this change. 
He could not make the Ulster Liberals, and es- 
pecially the Presbyterians, his instruments. Many 
years afterwards he said : " The Northern Whig 
appears to me to be a fair specimen of the hypo- 
crisy of political principles in Belfast. They 
invoke the name of Liberty, while they assail the 
ardent friend of freedom. They effect a generous 
sympathy with the oppressed, while they are as stout 



PROGRESSIVE MEASURES. 51 

and persevering calumniators as the best trained 
dealer in virulent falsehood to be found in the entire 
Orange gang."* This is given as a specimen of the 
many similar denunciations, which characterized 
nearly the whole of O'Conneirs parliamentary ca- 
reer. His denunciations included all the Ulster Lib- 
erals whom The Northern Whig represented, and 
not merely the Presbyterians. The effort which 
was made at the Lichfield House meeting to come to 
terms with O'Connell, might have been successful 
much earlier had a more conciliatory attitude been 
adopted by Stanley, the first Irish Chief Secretary 
of the Reform Administration. It was said fools 
had prophesied there would be great difficulties in 
governing Ireland, and that the fools turned out to 
be right, and the wise men wrong. After such a 
great change from extreme Conservatism to what the 
Tories and their newspapers represented as Radical- 
ism, and indeed Revolution, it was doubtless disap- 
pointing during these years to find so much disagree- 
ment between Lord Grey and some of his colleagues, 
and afterwards between his successor. Lord Mel- 
bourne, and his colleagues. It is no part of the 
design of this volume to enter into personal details. 
There were great confusion and dissension. But 
when all has been said, the impartial opinion will 
probably be, that Lord John Russell felt the respon- 
sibility of inheriting the traditions of a great his- 
toric party, which had long been on the side of con- 
stitutional progress, and that the efforts he made 
to give some conscientious consistency to his 
policy, deserve to be honourably remembered. It 
has been said that the Irish Catholics might have 
been conciliated had the first Reform Administration 

* O'ConneU's Speeches. Vol. 2. Page 45. 



52 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

shown more desire to recognise their claims to legal 
appointments, to the magistracy, and other offices, 
which they afterwards received as a matter of course. 
But it might be urged in reply that for such appoint- 
ments most of them had to qualify themselves. Irish 
Catholics generally could scarcely be said to be fit for 
office, until they had acquired experience. O'Connell 
thought that he ought to have had the Attorney-Gen- 
eralship. It was doubtless galling to aspiring men 
not to have their claims to offices acknowledged by 
deeds, while the possession of such offices was ad- 
mitted to be their legal right. 

The fair admission of Catholics to office cannot be 
said to have taken place while William the Fourth's 
brief reign was coming to a close. It was only by 
degrees, and in later and hapj^ier times, that Mr. 
Shell, who himself became Master of the Mint, and 
died a British Consul in Italy, acknowledged that 
Catholic Emancipation was complete. This was at 
least an admission, from the brilliant Catholic rhet- 
orician's point of view, that substantial political pro- 
gress had been made. 

It may be said there was now no longer stagnation. 
The British nation seemed to be stirring with new 
life, which also appeared to animate the French, who 
under a constitutional sovereign, as yet only pos- 
sessed a very limited franchise. Eminent English 
Liberals who looked across the Channel at what was 
passing under the government of the Citizen King, 
Louis Philippe, thought the British Beform Adminis- 
tration and the French Government were going on 
parallel paths, and that so far as France was con- 
cerned the era of Bevolutions was closed. ^'We have 
now, we think, the whole before us," was complac- 
ently said in 1835 by Macaulay, who assumed a lofty 



PROGRESSIVE MEASURES. 53 

superiority over Burke, because the great Irislinian 
refused to admit that the goal of France was the 
constitutional monarchy, over which French and 
British Liberals had joined hands, in the first year 
of Louis Philippe's reign and the last of William the 
Fourth's.* 

Men were turning their minds to social and 
economical problems, which for the most part, 
though not absolutely, had been neglected by Sir 
Robert Peel before he began to lead the Tory for- 
lorn hope. Certain reforms in the criminal code, 
long recognised as desirable, were carried, as well as 
others whicK could not be said to be of a merely 
partisan character. War, as war, was condemned, 
not only as un-Christian, but also as involving reck- 
less expenditure and an increase in the ^N'ational debt, 
which amounted to more than eight hundred millions. 
The country was thought to be staggering under this 
burden. Joseph Hume, and other Radical members, 
did all they could to point out the extravagance 
which had added so much to the taxation. It was 
owing to Hume that the Liberals, in many constitu- 
encies, not only were pledged to Peace and Eeform, 
but also to Retrenchment; or, as was then said, to 
Peace, Economy, and Reform. 

These became popular watchwords. The army 
and navy were reduced out of all proportion to the 
demands which were soon to be made upon them by 
a steadily growing Empire. The expenditure on the 
army was brought down to some seven millions. It 
was said that, even with the great Duke of Welling- 
ton looking on, the nation was content to repose on 
the laurels it had won in the Peninsular War, and 

*See Macaulay's Essay on Sir James Mackintosh. 



54 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

on the great pitched field of Waterloo. In later 
years, when efforts were made to increase the army 
and navy, Joseph Hume, and other Radicals, habitu- 
ally referred to the wisdom of the first Reform Ad- 
ministration in keeping do^vn the public expenditure 
in what they represented as the two extravagantly 
spending departments of the state. They reproacjied 
Liberal Ministers with having abandoned the 
economy of their predecessors. It was thought that a 
large army, and a large navy, maintained by what 
Hume regarded as an enormous expenditure, could 
not represent political progress. 

It is not necessary to enquire how far this popular 
assumption was correct. Time mil tell its own 
story. N^or is it necessary to notice the Ministerial 
dissensions, the personal jealousies, and rivalries of 
this time. The King's pretensions to impose condi- 
tions on the policy of his Ministers, especially with 
respect to the Appropriation Clause of the Irish 
Tithes Bill, were a continuation of the objections 
raised by his brother, and father, under the terms 
of the Coronation Oath. But the King's objections 
were more or less overcome. There was no longer 
a large body of so called King's friends, depending on 
the favour of the sovereign, and acting as though the 
people, and Ministers w^ho had an independent policy, 
were the King's enemies. The rotten boroughs, to 
a considerable extent the support of these sycophants 
of Royalty, had in a great measure disappeared, and 
were to be known no more. On both sides of the 
House of Commons a more earnest spirit was shown 
with respect to legislation than there had been before 
the extension of the franchise. The Tithe Commu- 
tation Act strengthened, and did not in any way 
weaken the Church of England. The Irish Poor 



PROGRESSIVE MEASURES. 55 

Law Bill was passed. But tlie Irish Municipal Bill, 
accepted by the House of Lords, was rejected by the 
Commons : and the Irish Tithes Bill, which had been 
introduced ^ve times, had to be given up in conse- 
quence of the death of the King. 

This event, which occurred on the 20th of June, 
1837, came as a surprise to the nation, and even 
the Government. Of the character of William 
the Fourth it is not necessary to say anything 
in these pages. His reign marks the end of an 
old system of monarchy, which may be said to have 
been " made in Germany,'' and was inculcated on 
the youthful mind of George the Third by his mother, 
and her favorite adviser. Lord Bute. It was not, in- 
deed, the old assertion of the Divine Right of Kings. 
To this the Hanoverian sovereigns could scarcely lay 
claim while a Pretender to the Crown in the direct line 
from James the Second was still in existence. But it 
was the assertion of the sovereign's personal su- 
premacy in great matters of public policy. This 
Royal Supremacy had been asserted with modifica- 
tions according to time and circumstances, from the 
day George the Third ascended the Throne, with the 
admonition of his mother, "George, be King," until 
the end of the first third of the nineteenth century. 
Then there was a change, a change which was in- 
stinctively felt by all classes. The people breathed 
more freely, and assurances were apparent that there 
would be nothing of a merely formal character in the 
political progress of the brighter days that were to 
come. 



56 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTEE V. 

BEGINXLJfG OF THE QUEEn's REIGN. 

On May the 19tli, 1828, Sir AValter Scott records in 
his Diary that he dined by command with the Duchess 
of Kent. "I was/' he writes, "very kindly recognised 
by Prince Leopold, — and presented to the little Prin- 
cess Victoria. This little lady is educated with 
much care, and watched so closely that no busy maid 
has a moment to whisper, ^You are heir of England.' 
I suspect if we could dissect the little heart we should 
find that some pigeon or other bird of the air had 
carried the matter."* These lines read strangely 
seventy-two years after they were written, when the 
"little lady" has reigned sixty-two years, and is now 
a venerable octogernarian.f At the general election 
which ensued on the accession of the young Queen, 
Lord John Russell, then Secretary of the Home De- 
partment, on being again returned for Stroud made 
some memorable observations. "We have had," he 
said, "glorious female reigns. Those of Elizabeth 
and Anne led us to great victories. Let us now hope 
that we are going to have a female reign illustrious 
in its deeds of peace — an Elizabeth without her 
tyranny, an Anne without her weakness." Macaulay 
a few years afterwards said something to the same 

*Lockhart's Life of Scott. 

fA short time after these lines were written the venerable 
Queen died. Eds. 



BEGINNING OF THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 57 

effect, expressing the hope that Queen Victoria's 
reign would be regarded as that of a gentler Eliza- 
beth. 

During what may be termed the second part of 
Lord Melbourne's administration, the domestic policy 
pursued continued to be more or less progressive. 
But there was not much in it to excite popular en- 
thusiasm. It is admitted, however, that the political 
education of the young and inexperienced Queen, 
was especially directed by her Prime Minister, and 
that the effect has been eminently beneficial during 
all the eventful years Her Majesty has occupied the 
throne. It would be difficult to overrate the great 
public service thus performed by one who was repre- 
sented as scarcely a serious statesman, and as looking 
upon public life as a jest. This service was far be- 
yond any measure of political progress : it was politi- 
cal progress in the highest and best sense of the word. 
Whatever may be regarded as Lord Melbourne's 
faults, shortcomings more or less of a personal char- 
acter, most patriotic citizens of the United Kingdom 
and of the British Empire will feel that gratitude to 
this statesman's memory which it is well known the 
Queen herself has long entertained. 

Lord P aimer ston, of whom the youthful Mr. Dis- 
raeli writes to his sister as only one of a not very bril- 
liant ^'lot," was the Foreign Minister, an office which, 
with some intervals, he long continued to fill. A new 
spirit, destined to develop, began to display itself in 
the Foreign Office. That spirit had an effect in many 
continental countries where efforts were being made 
to continue the Holy Alliance, in order to keep down 
what was regarded as revolutionary democracy, which 
for the most part was nothing more dangerous than a 
desire for constitutional freedom. In Spain there 



68 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

was now a strong protest against absolutism. Ferdi- 
nand the Seventh's daughter was acknowledged as 
heir to the throne, with her mother Christina as 
Regent. She was supported against Don Carlos by 
Great Britain. A British fleet, operating on the 
Spanish coast, gave effective aid to what was pro- 
fessedly a constitutional government. This was a 
great change from what had been seen in the previous 
decade, when the despotism of Ferdinand the Seventh 
had been supported by a French army of a hundred 
thousand men. Charles the Tenth had died an exile 
in England ; and the accession of Ferdinand's daugh- 
ter, under the Regency of her mother, excited ex- 
pectations among liberty-loving people in the Brit- 
ish dominions, very different from those of the 
dreary round of Spanish despotism, which it was 
hoped had ended for ever. 

At Queen Victoria's accession the most disturbed 
part of her colonial dominions was Canada. What 
was called Lower Canada was French, and had been 
ceded to England at the Peace after the Seven Years' 
war in 1YG3. There had been other acquisitions half 
a century before at the earlier settlement of Europe by 
the Peace of Utrecht, when Queen Anne's last Tory 
Ministry was accused, through jealousy by the Whigs 
and Lord ]\Iarlborough, of betraying British interests 
to France, then and long afterwards regarded as our 
natural enemy. For a great many years the British 
and French races in Canada might have lived under 
one sceptre. They did not, however, mingle. The 
country was very little known beyond the two recog- 
nised centres, liorth and South, Upper and Lower. 
The Government at home had other things to do than 
to think of Canada. The pedantic George Gren- 
ville, and afterwards the versatile Charles Towns- 



BEGINNING OF THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 59 

Lend, adopted a scheme of taxing the American 
colonies under the pretext of reimbursing Great 
Britain some of the expenses of the late war. This 
unhappy step, contrary to the English constitutional 
principle of taxation and representation being asso- 
ciated, led to the most impolitic, and, in its conse- 
quences, disastrous war the Government had ever 
waged. A bitter antagonism was raised between the 
two great divisions of the Anglo-Saxon race in the 
Old World and the ^ew. This was not political 
progress, but very much the reverse. 

War was thought to be approaching. The Gov- 
ernment, however, can scarcely be said to have made 
any attempt to avert it by the Boston Port Bill and 
the Massachusetts Charter Act. In the Session of 
1774, in order to prevent the expansion of the JSTew 
England Colonies the Ministry introduced, and, with 
some alterations, carried, what was briefly called the 
Quebec Act. ^A system of concession to the Catho- 
lics of Lower Canada was adopted. They were per- 
mitted to take part in the Legislative Council, and to 
enjoy the free exercise of their religion, which, to a 
certain extent, became a State institution. What- 
ever may have been the motives which influenced the 
Ministers, the Quebec Act must be considered, so far 
as the dealings between Great Britain and her colon- 
ies are concerned, a step in political progress. Ed- 
mund Burke was at this time agent for l!^ew York, as 
well as one of the most energetic members of the 
House of Commons in opposing the colonial policy 
of the British Government. He had to defend the 
interests of his colony, of which the Ministers seemed 
disposed to limit the extent while favouring the new 
Canadian Province. Of religious freedom for the 



60 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Roman Catholic Church in Canada, as elsewhere, 
Burke at all times approved; but in indignant lan- 
guage he pointed out the inconsistency of Ministers 
acting so liberally to the French and Catholic Cana- 
dians, while enforcing a system of rigorous oppres- 
sion against the British and Puritan colonies of New 
England. 

Seventeen years after this time the so-called Que- 
bec Act had to be altered, and the condition of the 
Province under the measure to be modified. This 
was during the progress of the French Revolution, 
which was to change a professedly constitutional Mon- 
archy to a Republic that was to defy the world. It 
was in discussing the Canada Bill that the public 
quarrel between Pox and Burke occurred, a quarrel 
which was never made up. 

The difficulties of governing French Canada under 
ecclesiastical as well as civic rule, while the old loyal- 
ist emigrants and the recent settlers represented such 
different ideas, were very great. They were not 
overcome when Queen Victoria began her reign. 
There was a rebellion. The Government sent out 
the restless, and Radical Lord Durham, as Governor- 
General, to solve the difficult problem. He did not 
solve it : he had even prematurely to give up the task. 
But his recommendation to reunite Upper and Lower 
Canada was not long afterwards adopted. 

Canada, however, continued steadily to advance in 
commercial prosperity. Notwithstanding difficulties, 
it profited by the Free Trade policy and the repeal 
of the Navigation Laws. There was a party in 
favour of annexation to the United States: but it 
could make no head. The two antagonistic races in 
Canada were, indeed, as yet far from being recon- 
ciled: they had many prejudices and racial antipathies 



BEGINNING OF THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 61 

to overcome. The discovery of gold in British Col- 
umbia, and of coal on Vancouver island, did much 
to break down local prejudices. The various Cana- 
dian Railways, the Grand Trunk, the line connecting 
Georgian Bay with Toronto, the Great Western, 
the Intercolonial, and, much later, the Canadiaa 
Pacific Railways, greatly contributed to the develop- 
ment of the territories, which seemed so far apart, 
and, in certain districts, were looked upon as a kind 
of no man's land. The progress of Canada is indeed 
an interesting study through the whole course of the 
century. With many obstacles to overcome Canada 
shows political progress to a most gratifying extent. 
The British colonists and the French Canadians may 
be said, in Coleridge's language, for many years to 
have been separated by the whole diameter of being. 
To a union there were sectarian obstacles of a very 
formidable character. But by slow degrees the ob- 
stacles almost insensibly gave way: Canada might 
say with a well known character that she ^^ growed." 
This is an interesting study for a statesman : more 
interesting, indeed, than the study of some States of 
much greater pretensions. The distinction of Upper 
and Lower Canada, whether separate or united, may 
be said to have disappeared when the confederation 
of the British Colonies of North America was formed 
by the British ITorth America Act of 1867, thirty 
years after Her Majesty had ascended the throne. 
The so-called Dominion of Canada, formed origin- 
ally of Upper and Lower Canada, ^N'ova Scotia and 
'New Brunswick, soon attracted- within the Union 
other outlying territories. Newfoundland alone 
remains out : this will not continue, we may be well 
assured for another century. 

In the formation of the Dominion there was a grati- 



62 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

fying novelty, for to all intents and purposes the colo- 
nies made their own confederation. Its origin was 
Canadian, and not British. It was not the work of a 
British government, or of a British parliament. They 
looked on, and accepted what the ITorth American 
colonies, so widely different from one another, did 
by themselves. The Dominion was approved of at 
home, and ratified by the Parliament at Westminster. 
This was the beginning of similar movements in other 
British colonies, gradually developed in the future 
years of progress, and tending to the formation of 
one great Federation in the century just begim. 

It was fortunate that the Dominion was thus 
established just before Lord Dufferin became the 
Governor-General, Her Majesty's Viceroy in 
Canada. His Lordship has had more experience of 
the Empire, and of its relations with foreign govern- 
ments, than any living statesman, or than any one 
who ever lived. His varied experience in many 
lands has been compared to that of Ulysses in the 
ancient world. He has been eminently a represent- 
ative of peace and union. It has been his rule in 
life to see everything, as far as possible, with his 
own eyes. When, as a young man just of age, he 
came into possession of his Irish estate at Clandeboye, 
he \dsited every farm, it might be said every house, in 
order to make himself fully acquainted with the peo- 
ple of whom he had become the landlord. Lie did 
not content himself with listening to the representa- 
tions of agents. As Governor-General of Canada 
he acted in a similar spirit. As opportunities were 
afforded, he w^ent through vast territories in which no 
' representative of the Queen had ever before set foot. 
His knowledge, therefore, became personal and 
familiar. At Tuscarora he replied to the addresses 



BEGINNING OF THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 63 

of representatives of six nations wlio prided them- 
selves on being the old allies of the British Crown. 
On returning from his Western expedition, Lord 
Dufferin, at a banquet of the Toronto Club, said: 
"So far from this gift of autonomy having brought 
about any divergence of aim or aspiration on either 
side, every reader of our annals must be well aware 
that the sentiments of Canada towards Great Britain 
are infinitely more friendly now, than in those earlier 
days, when the political intercourse of the two coun- 
tries was disturbed and complicated by an excessive 
and untoward tutelage: that never was Canada more 
united, than at present in sjTxipathy of purpose, and 
unity of interest with the Mother Country, never 
more at one with her in social habits and tone of 
thought, more proud of her claim to share in the 
heritage of England's past, more ready to accept 
whatever obligations may be imposed upon her by her 
partnership in the future fortunes of the Empire."* 

At Rat River, Manitoba, he replied to an address 
of the Mennonite settlers, a religious sect who had 
left Southern Russia to avoid the Tsar's military ser- 
vice. A month later he had also to reply to an ad- 
dress from the Icelandic settlers at Gimli, Keewatin, 
on Lake Winnipeg. They appealed to his recollec- 
tions of his yachting expedition, of which in the vol- 
ume "Letters from High Latitudes" there is so inter- 
esting a record. Lord Dufferin in addressing those 
settlers reminded them that "in your own country 
none of you had ever seen a tree, a cornfield, or a 
road." They had, therefore, at first to learn a great 
deal from the Canadian colonists engaged in felling 
timber, ploughing land, and constructing highways. 

*Lord Dufferin's Speeches and Addresses, Page 161. 



64 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Before he left Canada Lord Dufferin was compli- 
mented on the series of addresses he had delivered 
during the term of his Governor-Generalship. They 
are still worthy of careful attention by those who 
would watch Canadian development. His speeches 
produced a great effect, which has indeed been per- 
manent. They Avere delivered by the right man, and 
at the right time. They did as much as any spoken 
words could do to consolidate the Dominion, to make 
the Canadians united among themselves, and thor- 
oughly loyal to the Queen and to the Empire. Polit- 
ical progress was stimulated as it had never been be- 
fore in the extensive regions which were gradually 
becoming knoAvn. On first arriving in Canada Lord 
Dufferin was struck by what appeared to be its back- 
wardness. A closer acquaintance with the country 
in some measure altered this impression, by showing 
him how much there was admitting of great expan- 
sion. Canada cannot be judged either by what was 
considered Upper or Lower Canada at the time of 
the Queen's accession, or by what was at first popu- 
larly considered the Dominion. The country is much 
more extensive: it comprehends a still wider range 
of progress. Lord Dufferin's Governor-Generalship 
opened the eyes of the colonists to what might be 
done in the not remote future. Before he laid down 
his office, after holding it for six years, he had 
shoAvn the Canadians the promised land. During 
this time a friendly feeling had grown up between 
Canada and the United States. The Fishery award 
terminated an unpleasant dispute, and all thoughts 
of annexation had been abandoned at Washington, 
and at ISTew York, where Lord Dufferin himself had 
been cordially welcomed. Between Canada and 
Ulster there has been something of a family attach- 




13 



THK MARQUESS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA. 



BEGINNING OF THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 65 

ment. 'No inconsiderable number of British colonists 
in E'orth America have been Ulster men. In a 
speech delivered at Belfast, on returning from his 
Governor-Generalship, Lord Dufferin uttered the 
following words, which were much applauded bj his 
entertainers: "From early days I have always be- 
lieved in our colonial future, and my official experi- 
ence has confirmed my conviction that if England will 
only be true to herself, and to those she has sent forth 
to establish the language, the law, the liberties, the 
manfulness, the domestic peace of Britain over the 
world's surface: if she will but countenance and en- 
courage them in maintaining their birthright as her 
sons: if she will only treat them in an affectionate, 
and sympathetic spirit: this famous Empire of ours, 
which is constantly asserting itself with accumulating 
vigour in either hemisphere, and in every clime, will 
find the associated realms which compose it daily 
growing more disposed to recognise their unity, to 
take a pride in their common origin and antecedents, 
to draw more closely together the bonds which bind 
them to each other and to the Mother Country, to 
oppose in calamity and danger a still more solid front 
to every foe, and to preserve s'acred and intact in 
every quarter of the globe, with an ever deepening 
conviction of their superiority, the principles of well- 
balanced monarchical constitution, which the past 
experience, and the current experiments of man- 
kind, prove to be the best fitted to secure well ordered 
personal liberty and true Parliamentary Govern- 
ment." 

Here a broad colonial policy was shadowed forth 
not only for Canada, but for the whole British colo- 
nial Empire. It has been more or less realised as 
the years have passed. This was, indeed^ sounding 
5 



eQ POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

the keynote of political progress, not only for the 
century, but it may be for centuries to come. What 
was thus said of England's Empire on the 26th of E^o- 
vember, 18Y0, might then to a great extent have been 
regarded as prophetic. The prophecies were in some 
twenty-one years to become facts ; facts, however, still 
admitting of abundant growth, of great Imperial ex- 
pansion, with the colonies gathered more closely round 
Queen Victoria's throne, as representing the unity of 
the people in many lands, and over many seas. 

Turning to Foreign Affairs a somewhat painful 
contrast may be found. In them for many years 
political progress, in the best sense of the word, can- 
not easily be discerned. The Holy Alliance still 
continued, in the last year of William the Fourth's 
reign, and the first year of Queen Victoria's, more or 
less to assert itself. The Emperor E^icholas of Rus- 
sia, after the naval battle of Navarino, and the Treaty 
of Adrianople, adopted the policy of endeavoring to 
extend his power over Turkey. He resented the 
appointment as ambassador to Russia of Sir Stratford 
Canning, whom he justly regarded as opposed to his 
pretensions. The Emperor found himself in direct 
opposition to Lord Palmerston, who was becoming 
more friendly to Turkey than he had been before he 
was Foreign Minister. Louis Philippe and his gov- 
ernment professed, though they did not feel, great 
friendship for the British Liberal Administration. 
The French occupation of Algiers took place under 
a pledge that it was to be only temporary. This was 
almost simultaneous with the fall of Charles the 
Tenth, and the establishment of Louis Philippe's 
throne. Mehemet Ali, after having assisted the 
Sultan against Greece, began to aspire to be an inde- 
pendent ruler in Egypt and Syria^ while France ad- 



BEGINNING OF THE QUEEN'S REIGN. gY 

vanced the pretensions of ]^apoleon the First in those 
countries. In direct disregard of the declaration of 
the military Powers which had carried out the three 
partitions of Poland, Cracow, so far from being main- 
tained in freedom, was occupied by the armies of 
Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Foreign Affairs be- 
came most complicated, and Lord Palmerston, as a 
Liberal Foreign Minister, warmly supported at the 
time by Lord John Russell, though not by all the 
members of the Cabinet, had what were thought al- 
most insurmountable obstacles to overcome. 

For a time the struggle seemed unequal. Russia 
by the Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi suddenly acquired 
rights to enter the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, 
denied by the Porte to Powers of the Mediterranean. 
In the Peninsula an English fleet co-operated with 
the youthful constitutional queens, Isabella and 
Donna Maria, in asserting something of constitu- 
tional freedom. The suspension of the Foreign En- 
listment Act allowed an English Brigade to be formed 
for co-operation with those who were asserting the 
right to give effect to the wishes of the people. In 
Western Europe, at least, the old theory of the 
Divine Right of Kings seemed to be losing much of 
its traditional influence. There was political pro- 
gress, even if it were somewhat slow and doubtful. 

Turkey was soon threatened by Russia on the one 
side, and by Mehemet Ali on the other. To protect the 
independence of the Sultan against his disobedient 
vassal aspiring to the sovereignty of both Egypt and 
Syria, was the last work of Lord Palmerston, as 
Foreign Minister, before the fall of the Melbourne 
Administration upon the vote of want of confidence 
carried by Sir Robert Peel in July, 1841. England 
had begun to be regarded as the friend of Turkey. 



68 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

This change was the more remarkable because it was 
brought about by a Liberal Minister, somewhat doubt- 
fully supported by many of his colleagues. During 
the previous year M. Thiers had become Prime 
Minister of France. He encouraged Mehemet All's 
designs, which he thought could be carried out, inde- 
pendently of the Sultan, under a French Protectorate. 

This may be regarded as the beginning of the parti- 
tion of the Turkish Empire. IN^apoleon had been 
checked in Syria by the British: but not from any 
love at that time of Turkey and her integrity. Be- 
fore the Reform Era England had done what she 
could to set up the comparatively small State of 
Greece, and even to find for it a King. It had not 
been the policy of France to support the Sultan's 
authority either in Syria or Eg\7)t, a fact which her 
public men and newspapers in recent years appear 
to have quite forgotten. M. Guizot, the philoso- 
phical, represented Louis Philippe's government at 
the Court of St. James. After a long delay on the 
part of M. Thiers and his colleagues to consent to 
any intervention against Mehemet Ali, M. Guizot 
was informed that a Quadruple Alliance had been 
signed by Bussia, Prussia, Austria, and England, for 
action against the Sultan's disobedient and ambitious 
vassal. 

On learning of the Quadruple Alliance, which had 
been agreed to without his knowledge, M. Thiers 
was furious. His ambition and his vanity were both 
deeply interested. He made great preparations for 
war, and a collision betAveen France and England 
seemed imminent; though Louis Philippe is reported 
to have said: ^^So long as I am king there shall be 
no war between the two countries." But had the 
action of the British, Austrian, and Turkish fleets 



BEGINNING OF THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 69 

been slow it might have been difficult to avoid hostili- 
ties with France. The Porte had formally declared 
Mehemet Ali to be deposed from the Pashalic of 
Egypt, a step of which Lord P aimer ston disap- 
proved. The coasts of Syria and Egypt were block 
aded, or at least declared to be. Beyrout was bom- 
barded, and Soliman Pasha with his Egyptian troops 
obliged to leave the town. Sidon was taken by 
storm, and Commodore Charles ^Napier then 
marched into the mountains. The Lebanon was free 
from the army of Ibrahim Pasha, the eldest son of 
Mehemet Ali, who, to M. Thiers' astonishment, be- 
came a fugitive and sought refuge in Erance. St. 
Jean d'Acre, which had been triumphantly defended 
against ^NTapoleon in 1Y99 by Sir Sidney Smith, and 
on which the great conjurer had said the fate of the 
East depended, was captured by the British fleet 
after a three hours' bombardment. 

N^ever was a^public man more humiliated than M. 
Thiers, Prime Minister of Erance, appeared to be 
in the face of the world. Long before the final blow 
at Mehemet Ali had been struck, M. Thiers wished 
to send the Erench fleet to Alexandria to give a moral 
support to the nominally deposed Pasha of Egypt. 
But this Louis Philippe repeatedly refused to sanc- 
tion. The Government resigned. M. Guizot, sup- 
posed to be the friend of England, became Eoreign 
Secretary, and Marshal Soult Minister of War and 
President of the Council. 

This arrangement was supposed to be made in the 
interests of peace. But when the news of the cap- 
ture of St. Jean d'Acre reached Paris, there was 
much excitement, and loud demands for war with 
perfidious Albion. But wiser counsels prevailed. 
Supported by the King, M. Guizot, who was taunt- 



^0 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ingly called ^^ The Englishman," strove successfully 
to preserve the peace. 

Efforts were made to put both the French people 
and the French Government in a good humour. This 
was partially effected by the treatyofthe 13th of July, 
1841, to which France was a party, not being shut out 
in the cold as by the Quadruple Alliance of the 
previous year. England had agreed to allow the 
Dardanelles, which she had previously forced, to re- 
main absolutely under the control of the Porte, and 
to send no ships into the Straits without Turkey's ex- 
press consent. The other Powers took the same en- 
gagement, Russia positively renouncing any intention 
of asserting an exclusive ascendency. This was an 
utter abandonment of the one-sided treaty of Unkiar- 
Skelessi. Turkey was taken under the protection of 
Europe, marking an era in the Turkish question. 

Can this change be regarded as showing satisfac- 
tory indications of political progress? Was it pro- 
gress or retrogression ? On this question there may 
still be very decided differences of opinion. In 1828, 
before the Reform Era, Prince Metternich had a de- 
sign of placing the integrity of the Turkish Empire 
under the public guarantee of the great European 
States. This had now been done. It may be main- 
tained, indeed, that the treaty of 1841 did not prevent 
war some thirteen years afterwards, and that it did not 
contain any guarantees against Turkish misgov- 
ernment. Attention was directed to this by Mr. 
Urquhart, who had been Secretary to the British 
Embassy at Constantinople, and who for many sub- 
sequent years saw the hand of Russia in all Lord 
Palmerston's Foreign Policy. This became with him 
a fixed idea. It was indeed absurd. 

The Quadruple Alliance of 1840, and the treaty to 



BEOINNINC OF THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 71 

which France was a party the following year, had for 
the time a pacific effect. They at least staved off 
war. As in the first year of his Foreign Secretary- 
ship Lord Palmerston was told that if he had the 
pen of an angel all the protocols he wrote could not 
preserve the peace on the disruption of Holland and 
Belgium, so just as his Foreign Secretaryship, except 
for a brief interval, was closing, it had been prophesied 
that war between France and England on the Turkish 
question could not be avoided. It was, however, 
avoided. That M. Thiers felt a bitter resentment at 
the manner in which he had been treated, can scarcely 
be doubted. But he could not give it effect. In the 
session after PeeFs new administration was formed. 
Lord Stanley, who had returned to his old office of 
Secretary for the Colonies, assailed Lord Palmerston's 
Foreign policy with some bitterness. Throughout the 
Syrian and Egyptian crisis Sir Robert Peel and the 
Duke of Wellington had been guarded: and they ex- 
pressed no disapprobation of the two treaties which 
had been framed with the direct object of preserving 
the integrity of the Turkish Empire. 

A grave question arises. Was this policy really 
wise ? It was undoubtedly thought to be so at the 
time. Much less was then known of Turkey, and 
of countries nearer Great Britain, than now. The 
broad lines of political morality, and of political pro- 
gress had not yet been distinctly laid down. Op- 
pressed nations did not excite the same amount of 
sympathy that they do now. Between a considerable 
portion of the British people, the Conservatives who 
supported Sir Robert Peel and his Government, and 
the despotic powers of the continent, there was sup- 
posed to be more or less of an alliance against the grow- 
ing spirit of popular freedom. Some years later, 



72 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

when Mr. Gladstone published his celebrated Letters 
to Lord Aberdeen,^ as a protest against the tyranny 
of the King of Naples, he plainly admitted that there 
was a sympathy between the British Conservatives 
and the continental monarchies opposed to the devel- 
opment of constitutional government in Europe, and, 
it may be presumed, throughout the world. 

But Russia and other Powers were now looking 
covetously towards Turkey. The young Sultan was 
thought to be struggling under great difficulties ; and 
though England had aided in providing Greece with 
a King, Turkey began to be regarded by the British 
as a friend and not as an oppressor. Edmund Burke 
had long before declared in memorable language that 
he did not wish well to the Porte, that he regarded it 
as incorrigible, and that those who attempted to keep 
it as it was, deserved the condemnation, and even the 
curses of posterity. He would not have looked upon 
an attempt to bolster up the Turkish Empire as an 
indication of political progress: neither in his latest 
years could Mr. Gladstone: very much the reverse. 

* See the first of Mr. Gladstone's Letters to Lord Aberdeen. 



ECONOMIC POLICY: FREE TKADE. 73 



CHAPTEE VI. 

ECONOMIC policy: fkee teade. 

On the 27th of August, 1841, just after the treaty 
of the Five Powers with respect to Turkey had been 
signed, Lord Melbourne and his colleagues were de- 
feated, by a majority of ninety-one, on an amend- 
ment to the Address. This was after having ap- 
pealed to the country, not on the Turkish question, 
but on an economic one. The question of the mainte- 
nance of the Corn Laws had been raised. Lord John 
Russell, whose reputation had greatly increased dur- 
ing the years he, had been the Leader of the House of 
Commons in Lord Melbourne's Grovernment, during 
the last year of office under that administration was 
supposed to be in favour of removing some of the re- 
strictions on the importation of foreign corn. E^either 
he nor his colleagues could be called free traders when, 
after a defeat by a majority- of one, they appealed to 
the country in favour of a fixed duty instead of the 
sliding scale which Sir Robert Peel and the Conserva- 
tives were known to support. A sliding scale had 
been the Conservative policy many years before, and 
in 1829, when it was sought to conciliate the artisans 
in the great towns by an alteration of the Corn Laws. 
The free trade agitation had gone on ever since. The 
Anti-Corn Law League had been formed in Man- 
chester, on the 18th of September, 1838, by Charles 
Yilliers, M. P., Cobden and Bright, who were then 



74 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

comparatively unknown, and by numerous others, 
who were looked down upon as manufacturers, even 
tradesmen, and were superciliously called the Man- 
chester men. 

Sir Robert PeeFs Government of 1841 was un- 
doubtedly formed to continue a Protectionist policy. 
This it is quite vain to deny. It was admitted by 
Peel himself. Dependent as the Ministry was on the 
country gentlemen, thoroughly interested in what Mr. 
Disraeli at their head afterwards called the Land of 
England, it could not have professed anything but a 
protectionist as against a free trade policy. Mr. 
Gladstone became Vice-President of the Board of 
Trade and Master of the Mint. He was supposed to 
be much in the confidence of Sir Robert Peel, who 
had given him a Secretaryship of the Treasury on 
forming his short lived administration in 1834. 
According to Mr. Disraeli, before he became his keen 
assailant. Peel was at that time a great man in a great 
position, summoned from Rome to govern England. 

As Mr. Gladstone soon afterwards began his tariff 
experiments, which may be said to have been the 
pioneers of a free trade policy, what he said on taking 
office has very considerable significance. On being re- 
elected by his constituents he stated that the British 
farmer might depend on adequate protection to his 
industry, that protection was to be secured by a sliding 
scale, that the duties might be reduced and the system 
improved, but that the principle was to be maintained. 
"Words could not be plainer. It is obvious that the 
newly appointed Vice-President of the Board of Trade 
spoke not only for himself, but for Sir Robert Peel 
and his Government. It was to be a Protectionist 
Government. It was also, of course, to be a Con- 



ECONOMIC POLICY: FREE TRADE. Y5 

servative Government, l^ot long afterwards Mr. Dis- 
raeli wrote, in "Coningsby/' "A Conservative Govern- 
ment, I understand: Tory men, Whig measures.'' 

The last year of Lord Melbourne's administration 
had been one of financial and commercial depression. 
There was also much popular restlessness. Chartism 
embodied the strong, ignorant discontent with govern- 
ment by the middle classes, whose predominance in the 
State was constituted by the Reform Acts ten years 
previously. The Free Trade movement and the 
Chartist movement were essentially distinct; it might 
be said opposed to each other, though apparently ad- 
vancing in the same direction. Manhood suffrage; 
vote by ballot; annual Parliaments; the abolition of 
the property qualification for members of the House 
of Commons; payment of the members; and equal 
electoral districts, were the six points of the Charter. 
Two of them have since been carried. It is note- 
worthy that the abolition of the House of Lords, or 
even its reform, was not one of the points of the 
Charter. The Free Trade movement, on the other 
hand, was a middle class agitation against the ascend- 
ency of the landed interest, the country gentlemen 
and the aristocracy. Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn Law 
Rhymer, had no sympathy with the Chartists, and the 
same may be said of Cobden and Bright. 

Before the change of government there had been 
a serious social insurrection at Newport, in 
Momnouthshire. Several persons were killed, and 
a great many were wounded. Three of the rioters 
were sentenced to death, though the sentences 
were not carried out. Other disturbances followed, 
especially in Manchester, and the Free Trade Hall 
built in that city may be called a monument of Peter- 



76 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

loo. The new Government upheld against Lord John 
Russell and the Whigs in Opposition a fixed duty in 
preference to a sliding scale : but it has been said wdth 
some truth that the two proposals from a Protectionist 
point of ^dew amounted to very much the same thing. 
There was, however, a difference. This was admitted 
by Cobden, who had been returned to Parliament at 
the recent general election, when he stated that Lord 
John Russell and his colleagues on the front Opposi- 
tion Bench went three-fourths of the way Free 
Traders were anxious to proceed. After the bad har- 
vest of the last year of Lord Melbourne's Government, 
there were some good ones: but they do not appear to 
have had much effect on the prevailing discontent. 
The poor man's loaf was said to be heavily taxed. The 
Com Laws were popularly regarded as a system of 
almost de^'ilish iniquity to prevent the labouring 
classes obtaining cheap bread for their wives, their 
families, and themselves. It was the vigorous ex- 
pression of this feeling which made Elliott's Rhymes 
popular among the masses. 

Mr. Gladstone's tariff experiments were being made 
with characteristic earnestness. In the session of 
1842 there was a revised tariff in which several hun- 
dred articles were relieved from duties either alto- 
gether, or their impositions considerably diminished. 
These experiments proved to be generally successful. 
In the following year Mr. Gladstone, as yet a yoimg 
man of little more than thirty years of age, took 
the place of Lord Ripon as President of the Board 
of Trade, with a seat in the Cabinet. At the begin- 
ning of 1845 he had completed a second revised tariff: 
but suddenly resigned because he considered that Sir 
Robert Peel's proposed increase in the endowment of 



ECONOMIC POLICY: FREE TRADE. 77 

Maynooth College was inconsistent with the principles 
he had expressed in his work on the relations of a 
Christian Church to a Christian State. The reasons 
Mr. Gladstone gave for his retirement were by many 
people declared to be unintelligible, the more so when 
it was found that he could support as a private 
member what he felt himself unable to vote for as a 
Minister. During the great changes which followed, 
Mr. Gladstone, differing from his noble patron, the 
Duke of Newcastle, remained out of office: while Sir 
Robert Peel and his colleagues had to carry out an 
Anti-Protectionist policy, to which on entering office 
after the defeat of Lord Melbourne they were under- 
stood to be resolutely opposed. 

The agitation for the Repeal of the Corn Laws was 
making great progress. Bright had been returned to 
the House of Commons for the cathedral city of Dur- 
ham, and joined his friends Yilliers and Cobden. 
They became a very formidable phalanx. Sir Robert 
Peel on the Treasury Bench listened to arguments he 
was unable to refute. In the summer there were 
alarming rumours of the utter failure of the Irish 
potato crop. There was great distress in England; 
but in Ireland, where the population had increased by 
several millions since the Union, the peasants were 
threatened with absolute starvation. 

What was to be done? If it had not been for the 
Irish famine, which rendered immediate measures 
necessary, Peel would have prepared his party 
gradually for the inevitable change.* But the Irish 
famine forced the Prime Minister's hand. Lord John 

*See lAfe of the Prince Consort by Theodore Martin. 
Volume 1. Page 317. 



78 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Russell had no inconsiderable part in hastening the 
decision. He was spending the autumn in Scotland 
when he became convinced that the Corn Laws could 
no longer be retained, that their absolute repeal was 
inevitable. His Fixed Duty as well as Sir Robert 
Peel's Sliding Scale, in the presence of the great storm 
across the Irish sea, were e\ddently going by the board. 
It would be necessary to open the ports, and once 
opened, how could they in the presence of the formida- 
ble agitation of the Anti-Corn Law League be again 
closed? The new Free Trade era had begun. Lord 
John Russell in his celebrated letter to his constituents, 
the forerunner of other though less successful letters 
from the same pen, announced that the hour of repeal 
had struck, ^^The corn barom'eter," he wrote, ^'points 
to fair, while the ship is bending under a storm.'' 

Xot only the Protectionist Ship, but Sir Robert 
Peel's powerful Government were bending under the 
storm. Early in November the Prime Minister 
sought to induce his colleagues to open the ports for 
the admission of foreign grain, either by an Order 
in Council, or by summoning Parliament for the 
object. Lie was overruled by a large majority of the 
Cabinet, Lord Stanley and the Duke of Wellington 
being very decidedly opposed to the step. The ap- 
pearance of Lord John Russell's letter on the 22nd 
of !N^ovember, as Sir Robert himself afterwards 
acknowledged, made the position of the Government 
much more difficult. Three days afterwards another 
Cabinet Council was held. The Duke of AVellington 
was now prepared to support the Prime Minister, on 
the ground that the Queen's Government must be 
carried on. But the threatened resic'nations of the 
Duke of Buccleuch and Lord Stanley, convinced Sir 



ECONOMIC POLICY : FREE TRADE. 79 

Robert that under the circumstances he could not 
carry on the government. Early in December he 
asked the Queen to relieve him of his ministerial 
duties, which he felt he could no longer discharge 
with advantage to Her Majesty's Service. 

Lord John Russell was still in Edinburgh when he 
received the Queen's command to form an administra- 
tion, which was avowedly to undertake the Repeal of 
the Corn Laws. That repeal had become inevitable. 
An unexpected announcement in The Times that Sir 
Robert Peel had himself become a convert to the 
policy, produced a great sensation. It was received 
by many of the supporters of Peel and his Govern- 
ment with both incredulity and rage. They were 
not of course surprised, they said, at anything Lord 
John Russell might do, — ^but of Sir Robert Peel bet- 
ter things were expected. The change practically 
meant not only the downfall of Peel's Government, 
but of the Conservative party so far as it depended 
on the country gentlemen, and on a Protectionist 
policy. 

Lord John Russell and the Whigs would have had 
the credit of carrying the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 
as well as other Free Trade measures, had it not been 
for an unexpected obstacle to the formation of a new 
government. Lord Grey, the eldest son of the dis- 
tinguished statesman whose name is especially con- 
nected with the Reform Bill of 1831-32, had only 
succeeded his father in his Peerage a few 
months previously. While bearing the title of 
Lord Howick he had been appointed Under- 
Secretary of the Colonies in his father's Min- 
istry, but soon gave evidence of his impracticable 
disposition by resigning because the Cabinet would 
not support the immediate emancipation of the 
slaves. In Lord Melbourne's Government Lord 



30 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Howick became Secretary for War. Ten years later, 
when Lord John Russell undertook to form a Minis- 
try Lord Howick, who had now become Earl Grey, re- 
fused to take office because Lord Palmerston was 
again to be Foreign Secretary. Lord Grey, ob- 
jected to the reappointment of Palmerston on the 
ground that he had acted with the other Powers of 
the Quadruple alliance in driving Mehemet Ali from 
Syria, and defeating M. Tliiers' policy in the East, 
and that to allow him to return to the Foreign Office 
would be regarded by the French Government with 
distrust and hostility. The fact that persistence in 
this objection to Lord Palmerston prevented Lord 
John Russell from carrying out the task he had under- 
taken by the Queen's command, led to the third Earl 
Grey being regarded as a statesman of the first impor- 
tance, who could not be dispensed with by a AVhig 
or Liberal Cabinet. 

Here, I may be excused for quoting a letter to my- 
self in reply to some observations I made on the action 
of Earl Grey in an early work entitled ^'Thirty Years 
of Foreign Policy," — a history of the Secretaryship of 
the Earl of Aberdeen. My text was the statement 
made by Lord Aberdeen, in announcing the policy of 
his Government, on the 27th of December, 1852. The 
Prime Minister's words, which may be regarded as his- 
torical, were: "The truth is, my Lords, that, though 
there may have been differences in the execution 
according to the different hands entrusted with the 
direction of affairs, the principles of the foreign policy 
of this country have for the last Thirty Years been 
the same." 

This sentence caused much comment, and decided 
differences of opinion. In foreign affairs many people 



ECONOMIC POLICY: FREE TRADE. gl 

considered that Lord Palmerston represented Political 
Progress, and Lord Aberdeen Political Retrogression. 
In mj volume on ^'Thirty Years of Foreign Policy," 
referring to Lord Grey's opposition to Lord Palmers- 
ton again becoming Foreign Secretary, I wrote: "It 
appeared that there was at least one hereditary Whig 
statesman who could not appreciate the value of Lord 
Palmerston's claim to be once more Foreign Secre- 
tary, and who set about resisting his pretensions. 
The son of the great Prime Minister of the great 
Reform Bill, could not, of course, suppose that he 
would ever be excluded from a Liberal Ministry. It 
seemed impossible to do without Lord Grey: but very 
easy to do without Lord Palmerston. This singular 
delusion was persisted in, and Lord John Russell 
found himself obliged to relinquish the task which he 
had conscientiously undertaken. This failure, had it 
not been for the intrigue against one who had shown 
so much ability, both in office and in opposition, and 
whose only crimes were his success and his patriotism, 
was not much to be regretted. It was better that Sir 
Robert Peel should again return to office, and com- 
plete the work he had begun.'' 

As some time before I had consulted Macaulay, 
then residing in the Albany, on an earlier publication, 
I sent him a copy of my new volume. A few days 
afterwards I received from the brilliant essayist and 
historian a letter, from which, in justice to the memory 
of the third Earl Grey, I give the following sentences. 
Mr. Macaulay wrote to me : " You are very unjust 
to couple Earl Grey's name with the word ^ intrigue.' 
'No person disapproved of his conduct at that time 
inore than I did. But I must say that it was eminently 
straightforward conduct. There is not a more straight- 



82 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

forward, nor more intrepid nature in the world. I 
owe him this testimony." So it stands written, and 
now at last sees the light. 'No person will be disposed 
to question this testimony from so unexceptionable a 
source. When Lord John Russell was able to form 
a government, on the defeat of Sir Robert Peel's 
Irish Coercion Bill almost immediately after the repeal 
of the Corn Laws, Lord Grey vanquished his scruples 
against taking office with Lord Palmerston as Foreign 
Minister, and became Secretary of State for the 
Colonies. He was not at all popular as Secretary for 
the Colonies. He conceded to them Free Trade, so far 
as allomng them to introduce their goods into British 
markets free of duties. But on the other hand Lord 
Grey and his colleagues allowed the Colonies to tax 
British products as though Great Britain were a for- 
eign country. This was one sided Free Trade. The 
great scheme of Imperial Federation which is now 
gradually being developed was still in the far dis- 
tance. 

When Lord John Russell and his colleagues were 
ostentatiously carrying out their policy, Cobden and 
other thorough-going Free Traders confidently pre- 
dicted that the nations of the world, on seeing the 
advantages this policy had conferred on the United 
Kingdom, would emulously folloAV in the same direc- 
tion. It was said that in twelve months after the 
repeal of the l^a^dgation Laws, and the repeal of all 
duties imposed merely for the purpose of protection, 
there would be a great change. A change there was, 
but not in the manner predicted. Lord John Russell 
himself confessed that, with respect to the adoption 
of a Free Trade policy by other Governments, he was 
grievously disappointed. Up to the present time dis- 



ECONOMIC POLICY: FKEB TRADE. 83 

appointment may be said to have continued. Cob- 
den, on a remarkable occasion, said: ^^To buy in the 
cheapest market and to sell in the dearest, what is 
there to shock us in this? It is acting on the Chris- 
tian precept of doing unto others as you would wish 
them to do unto you." On this point there may still 
be, as there was when those words were uttered, some 
differences of opinion. Professedly Christian na- 
tions have not yet become converts to Free Trade: 
but it can scarcely be disputed that as a general prin- 
ciple it represents commercial and political progress 
in the best sense of the words. 

Just before Sir Robert PeeFs Protectionist policy 
had become untenable, in consequence of the Irish 
famine, Macaulay delivered a remarkable speech in 
the House of Commons, on the second reading of the 
Bill increasing the grant to Maynooth. At the 
beginning of the debate, Mr. Disraeli called on the 
Whigs to vote against the measure without inquiring 
into its merits, because of the men who had brought 
it forward. This Macaulay, and his political friends, 
refused to do even if it led, as proved to be the case, 
to the loss of his seat in the House of Commons. 
Macaulay, who was one of the members for the City 
of Edinburgh, said : "It is of the highest importance 
that the world should not be under the impression 
that a statesman is a person who, when he is out will 
profess and promise anything in order to get in, and 
who when he is in, will forget all that he professed 
and promised when he was out." This he regarded as 
most injurious to the character of public men, and to 
that public morality, on which some people are still 
so old fashioned as to believe all sound political pro- 
gress must depend. 



84 POLITICAL PKOGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

The increased grant to Maynootli College was rep- 
resented as tlie sudden adoption of a conciliatory policy 
towards Ireland, after the virtual failure of the 
prosecution of O'Connell by the Government. Con- 
sistency was still considered to be a virtue in states- 
men. Sir Robert Peel was reminded of his sudden 
change of opinion on the question of Catholic 
Emancipation. A few months afterwards, when he 
and several of his colleagues became Free Traders, 
and repealed the Corn Laws which they were thought 
to have entered office to maintain, he was again re- 
minded of having altered his course. This was 
thought to have become characteristic of what began 
to be called the Peelite party, as distinguished from 
the Conservative Party of which Lord Derby, Lord 
George Bentinck, and Mr. Disraeli, became the 
leaders. Lord George Bentinck accused Sir Robert 
Peel of having caused the death of Mr. Canning by 
opposing his emancipation policy, and afterwards 
being the very minister who carried Catholic 
Emancipation. It is not necessary to enter into these 
personal questions. A perseverance in error, when 
that perseverance would be injurious to country and 
Empire could scarcely be justifiable. But we may 
still believe that foresight, that prescience, is a most 
desirable virtue, and that in a great statesman the 
faculty, as Shakespeare has written, of sounding "the 
bottom of the aftertimes" cannot be too highly esti- 
mated. When Burke was accused of inconsistency 
in taking the course he did in condemnation of the 
French Revolution, he wrote of himself in the 
"Appeal from the ^ew to the Old Whigs": "I 
believe if he could venture to value himself upon 
anything, it is on the virtue of consistency he could 



ECONOMIC POLICY: FREE TRADE. 85 

value himself most. Strip him of this, and jou leave 
him naked indeed." 

It is evident that the great statesman and philos- 
opher, the most far-sighted of public men, considered 
consistency one of the greatest of political virtues. 
It was afterwards said that the French Revolution 
had made him a Tory, as it made Alfieri a courtier. 
How far did Burke in his old age differ from the 
modern Liberals under Lord John Russell when they 
supported the increased grant to Maynooth, and after 
their leader found himself unable to accomplish the 
task supported Sir Robert in repealing the Corn Laws ? 
Burke, as all who have read his letters to Dr. Hussey 
will understand, was one of the principal advisers of 
the original grant to Maynooth in 1795. He was a 
Free. Trader, as he had been from the time he first 
took his seat in Parliament, in 1Y66. He had agreed 
with Adam Smith before the great work on "The 
Wealth of Nations," which had been shown to him 
in confidence, had been published. Charles Fox on 
the other hand confessed long afterwards that there 
was something in the great economical question he 
could not even understand. As "Thoughts and De- 
tails on Scarcity," published in 1795, show, Burke, 
while urging on Ministers the advisability of endow- 
ing Maynooth College, was encouraging the Govern- 
ment to act on free trade principles. To the last hour 
of his life he was an earnest supporter of Catholic 
Emancipation. "Whether he might, or might not, 
have approved of the Act of Union, he had plainly 
stated that without Catholic Emancipation a political 
and legislative union between the two countries was 
impossible. This was not being a Tory, as probably 
Macaulay, who supported the increased Maynooth 



86 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

grant at the sacrifice of his seat in Parliament, would 
have admitted. The French Eevolution could not 
have made Burke an opponent of Parliamentary Re- 
form, for he had been opposed to it during his whole 
political life. There may still be a question whether 
such a measure as that carried by the Whigs under 
the leadership of the second Lord Grey, would have 
been advantageous in 1780, when Burke's London 
house was in danger of being destroyed by the Gordon 
rioters. 

Sir Robert Peel in endowing denominational 
Maynootli, laid the foundations of the non- 
sectarian Queen's University, with its three 
Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway. Mr. Stanley, 
who became both a Protectionist and Conservative, 
when a Whig, and Chief Secretary for Ireland, had 
encouraged Irish National Education on similar lines. 
Excellent as were Queen's University and its colleges 
in intention, they were opposed to the denominational 
spirit both of many members of the Church of Eng- 
land, and of the Irish Roman Catholic prelates. From 
the first the colleges were denounced as godless by so 
representative a Churchman as Sir Robert Inglis, one 
of the members for Oxford University. For many 
years the Irish N^ational Schools, indirectly at least, 
had become more and more denominational. Schools 
for the most part under clerical management, as many 
people believe, could scarcely be otherwise than de- 
nominational. On this question there has been a 
great controversy which cannot yet be considered 
settled. Leaders of both English parties in dealing 
with it, have acted with considerable inconsistency, 
because they have not been able to control the pre- 
judices of their followers. 



ECONOMIC POLICY: FREE TRADE. 87 

Lord Jolin RusselFs administration, succeeding to 
power after the defeat of Sir Eobert Peel by a com- 
bination of the discontented Protectionists, Liberals, 
and Irish Repealers, had to pursue a tentative policy. 
The first duty of the Government was to do what they 
could to remedy the evils produced by the Irish 
famine. This admitted of no delay, and to it all 
other political objects became more or less secondary. 
In the spring of 184T the government asked for a 
grant of a hundred thousand pounds for the education 
of the people. This was a very modest sum. It was 
one of many similar applications, which year by year 
gradually increased in amount, until a more complete 
system was established in 1870 under what was called 
the Elementary Education Act of England and Wales, 
the central authority residing in the Education De- 
partment, or Committee of Council on Education. 
The hundred thousand pounds of 1847 has now grown 
to more than eight and three quarter millions a year 
for England and Wales, and more than eleven and a 
quarter millions for the United Eangdom, indepen- 
dently of endowments, school fees, local rates, and 
voluntary subscriptions, which also have reached a 
very large sum. On this subject it is not neces- 
sary to enter into details. But it is curious on 
looking back to 1847 to find English Radical members 
objecting to State Education on principle, and to the 
small grant of a hundred thousand pounds as likely to 
add dangerously to the infl.uence of the Crown. In 
such objections very little progress can be discerned, 
even among those who professed to be advanced 
Liberals. It was shown, indeed, that the Puritans, 
who left England in the reign of Charles the First to 
seek freedom in what was called a desert, had from 
the first sought to set up a good system of popular 



gg POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

education; and that after tlie United States had 
become independent, Washington, who may be re- 
garded as the founder of the great American Repub- 
lic, had earnestly advised carrying out this policy on 
the broadest lines. 

From the very beginning of the century tentative 
efforts with respect to popular education had been 
made. But it was not until 184Y that the business 
can be said seriously to have been undertaken by a 
British government, as a great work of social reform. 
For this Lord John Russell, the Prime Minister, de- 
serves much credit. Macaulay, whose Parliamentary 
career was to be suspended by the defeat at Edin- 
burgh he had anticipated in consequence of his sup- 
port of the increased Maynooth grant, maintained 
that those who had the right to hang had the 
right to educate, and appealed to posterity against 
those opposed to this reform, — great in princi- 
ple, though small if the amount of popular ignor- 
ance which had ultimately to be grappled with 
were considered. John Arthur Roebuck, in replying 
to the historian's speech, said Macaulay was justified 
in appealing to posterity because he could reach it: 
but this did not render him (Roebuck) as a representa- 
tive of Bath more favourable to the measure. Roe- 
buck, who like Macaulay was defeated at the General 
Election, declared that for inflicting defeat upon him 
the Dissenters of Bath were unworthy of freedom. 

One of the most important measures passed by the 
new House of Commons was an act limiting the labour 
of women and young people between the ages of thir- 
teen and eighteen, employed in factories, to ten hours 
a day. The reform was one for which Lord Ashley, 
afterwards so well known as the philanthropic Earl 



ECONOMIC POLICY: FREE TRADE. 89 

of Shaftesbury, had long and earnestly laboured. 
Public attention was gradually being awakened to the 
necessity of State regulation and supervision over in- 
dustries, and during the century a long series of Acts, 
designed to protect the health of all labourers in 
factories and workshops, have been passed. Of these 
the first, the Health and Morals Act of 1802, was 
brought forward by Sir Robert Peel, the elder; the 
Second Factory Act of 1819, which only applied to 
cotton -mills, prohibited the employment of all chil- 
dren under nine, and restricted for those between 
the ages of nine and sixteen, the hours of labour to 
twelve, night work being prohibited. By Lord Al- 
thorp's Act of 1833 the half-time system for children 
between nine and thirteen was made law, with 
compulsory education of the children out of work 
hours. At this stage the question was taken up by 
Lord Ashley, who, in spite of the indifference of Sir 
Robert Peel, greatly extended the protection of the 
legislature over the helpless. By the Act of 1844, 
adult women were first brought under the Factory 
Acts, and their hours of work limited to twelve a day. 
The working hours of children under thirteen were 
further reduced, and the time they were to be daily 
under instruction increased. Unfortunately at the 
General Election, Lord Ashley lost his seat, and was 
not present in the House of Commons to support Mr. 
Fielden's new bill, in which he felt so keen an interest. 
But the cause was one in which he never ceased to 
labour, and he was subsequently Chairman of the 
Commission of Enquiry, which ten years later recom- 
mended the extension of the measure passed by the 
Government of Lord John Russell. 

Some of the most earnest Free Traders were the 



90 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

most decided opponents of the Factories Act. Tliey 
represented it as retrogressive, an interference with 
Free Trade, which they alleged to be opposed to all 
State interference with the hours of labour, even for 
women and children, and to all restrictions on private 
agreements between employers and employed. It can 
scarcely be said that many of the advanced Liberals 
who opposed this policy, which in subsequent years, 
like the Education Act, was to be carried so much 
further, appear on looking back to any great advant- 
age. They applied the doctrine of laissez faire to 
social questions which required to be dealt with in the 
interests of millions, and to problems which were 
thoroughly social though not identified with ordinary 
socialism. 

It has been stated that the Conservatives and Pro- 
tectionists supported the Education Act and the 
Factories' Act out of jealousy of Free Traders, who 
were opposed to those measures. Some of them may 
have been actuated by this motive; but it would be 
unjust to assume that many of them had not a higher 
one. Both measures have been greatly extended. 
This would scarcely have been the case had their prin- 
ciples in application not been found thoroughly 
beneficial. 

The Poor Law Commission became a Ministerial 
Department, and there were new rules framed with 
respect to the management of workhouses, and the 
meetings of the Guardians, and other regulations, 
which at least showed that Lord John Pussell and his 
colleagues were animated by something higher than 
ordinary political partisanship. The Public Health 
Act undertook to deal wdth important social questions 
of a somewhat analogous character to the Factories 



ECONOMIC POLICY: PRE2E TRADE. 91 

Act. Many people will admit that such measures 
were real steps in advance, while some of the ecclesias- 
tical questions, which were raised later, certainly can- 
not be dignified by the name of political progress. 
The memory of Dr. Hampden, and his appointment to 
the Bishopric of Hereford, can scarcely be said now 
to excite interest; and even the Ecclesiastical Titles 
Act of 1851, while rousing so much bitter antagonism 
at the time, may be said to have died a natural death. 
Lord John Russell's Durham letter on this subject 
stimulated what was called a "l^o-Popery'' cry. It 
was not a success, like his former letter on the Repeal 
of the Corn Laws which so greatly contributed to Sir 
Robert Peel's embarrassment. Mr. Grladstone ve- 
hemently opposed the measure prohibiting the use by 
Roman Catholic bishops of the titles of English Sees. 
Before it became law it was found that the measure 
could not be applied to Ireland, and after it had 
become law it remained a dead letter. In the early 
Reform days. Lord John Russell had been referred to 
as, "Johnny who upset the coach:" he was now de- 
picted in Punch as "the E^aughty Boy who chalked 
N^o-Popery on the wall, and then ran away." When 
the Ecclesiastical Titles Act was removed from the 
Statute Book in 1871, Mr. Gladstone declared that he 
had never had anything for it but maledictions. This 
was quite true. His attitude with respect to the Bill 
showed that he and some of his Peelite friends were 
going further and further away from the old Con- 
servative and Protectionist party. After the publica- 
tion of my first book, "The Right Hon. Benjamin 
Disraeli, M. P. : a Literary and Political Biography," 
I had confidential communications respecting the 
course Mr. Gladstone might be disposed to take. 



9^ POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Would he remain a Conservative, as the so-called 
Peelites were still supposed to be, or would he ulti- 
mately become the leader of the Liberal party? I was 
told by one well acquainted with the sentiments of 
Mrs. Gladstone, that, in her opinion, Mr. Gladstone 
could not be the leader of the Liberal party, that for 
taking such a course his Conservative principles and 
prejudices were much too strong, too deeply rooted 
in his nature. I presumed to reply: "As long as 
Mr. Disraeli lives Mr. Gladstone will, I am convinced, 
never be the leader of the Conservative party." It 
would not be too much to say that the venerable states- 
man who has so recently been taken away from the 
world had as little love for Lord Palmerston as he had 
for Mr. Disraeli, and that this dislike had then and 
for a long time afterwards a great deal to do with 
keeping him one of the representative of a small third 
party, which, like other third parties, it has often been 
declared, could not long maintain itself in an inde- 
pendent position. 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. 93 



CHAPTER VII. 

LORD PALMEESTON AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN 

EUROPE. 

On returning to the Foreign Office Lord Palmer- 
ston had to overcome, as far as possible, the distrust 
encouraged, if not created by Lord Grey^s action, at 
the end of 1845, in the minds of the King of the 
French and his principal Ministers. A visit to 
Paris, contemplated by Lord Palmerston, was strong- 
ly encouraged by Mr. Disraeli, who seems at this 
time to have been on more friendly terms with the 
Foreign Secretary than with any of his colleagues, 
or with Sir Robert Peel and his friends. Lord 
Aberdeen, as Foreign Secretary in Peel's late Ad- 
ministration, had endeavored to conciliate the Citizen 
King, who was beginning to dislike that title, and 
to follow in the ways of the House of Bourbon. The 
question of the marriage of the two daughters of 
Maria Christina had long been before Lord Aberdeen 
and Sir Robert PeeFs Government. It had even 
been discussed during a visit paid by the Queen to 
Louis Philippe at Eu. It was positively asserted by 
Lord Palmerston that Louis Philippe had pledged 
his word as a gentleman to Queen Victoria that he 
would not put forward one of his sons for the hand 
either of the young Queen of Spain, or that of her 
sister. 

The King of the French and M. Guizot judged of 
others by themselves. They suspected that a marriage 



94 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Avould be arranged between a Prince of the House of 
Coburg and tbe Queen of Spain. To thwart the sup- 
posed policy of England, on the 28th of August, 1846, 
only a month after Lord John Kussell's Administra- 
tion was formed, M. Guizot obtained the consent of 
the young Queen to marry the less capable of her 
two cousins, Don Francisco d' Assis, Duke of Cadiz, 
and of her sister to marry the Duke de Montpensier. 
The engagements were announced the next day in 
the Official Gazette; and the two marriages were 
celebrated on the 10th of October. The friendly 
relations which existed between the Governments of 
France and England were dissolved, never again to 
be re-established during Louis Philippe's reign. 
There was a great deal of recrimination: but Lord 
Aberdeen in a frank and manly letter to M. Guizot 
vindicated his successor from any breach of faith. 
He told the French Minister that he might have 
acted very much as Lord Palmerston had done, that 
it was absurd to talk of there being in one of the 
dispatches mention of a Coburg the more or of a 
France the less. The fact is that the young Queea's 
mother, Maria Christina, when Lord Aberdeen was 
at the Foreign Office, had brought forward the Prince 
of Coburg's name; and M. Guizot afterwards ad- 
mitted that he wrote, on December 10th, 1845, to 
the French Minister in Spain to be on his guard^ 
and, as the arrangement was contrary to the policy 
maintained by France, to defeat the pretensions of 
the Prince of Coburg, and to propose the Duke de 
Montpensier either for the hand of the Queen or of 
the Infanta. This was done notwithstanding Louis 
Philippe's personal promise to his Royal guest at Eu, 
and a second promise of a similar character made 
during the King's visit to Windsor. It was well 
said at the time : "They who would see high moral- 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. 95 

ity in words may read M. Guizot's speeches : they who 
would see it glaringly violated may look at it in his 
facts.'' 

The two Spanish marriages, which excited so much 
interest at the time, may now be thought worthy of 
little notice, but in their consequences they had a 
great deal to do with political progress, though of a 
very doubtful kind. Their first effect was to sweep 
away the last vestige of the Ejuagdom of Poland. At 
the end of October the King of the French received 
the Duke and Duchess de Montpensier; and on the 
6th of ITovember, a few days afterwards, there was 
signed by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, a Convention 
by which the treaties establishing the independence 
of Cracow were "revoked and suppressed." Prance 
and England having been divided on foreign affairs 
by the Spanish marriages, the spirit of the Holy Alli- 
ance was revived by the three Powers. M. Guizot 
protested: Lord Palmerston protested: but they pro- 
tested separately and independently. They could no 
longer act together in the cause of constitutional free- 
dom against the three despotisms that profited by the 
opportunity. The Queen in opening Paliament for 
the session of 1847 declared the abolition of Cracow as 
a free city, and its annexation to Austria, to be a 
manifest violation of the treaty of Vienna. The fact 
was one which Prince Metternich in vain attempted to 
dispute in a manifesto, severely commented upon by 
Lord Palmerston. Thus the last remnant of Polish 
independence was destroyed. The act was declared 
by Lord Palmerston the "dangerous inheritance of a 
successful wrong," — ^language not dissimilar from 
that in which the first partition of Poland was char- 
acterised by Burke in 1772.* 

* Annual Begister YJ72. Chap. 1. p. p. 1-4. 



96 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Though years afterwards Mr. Gladstone plainly 
implied that the Conservative Party, of which he still 
considered himself a member, sympathised with the 
despotic monarchies of the Continent, British Con- 
servatives generally as the year 1847 advanced, 
became much more moderate and even liberal in 
their ideas. Mr. Disraeli, indeed, surprised the House 
of Commons by an elaborate defence of the partition 
of Poland. But the action of the Austrian Govern- 
ment on the suppression of the insurrection in Silesia, 
and what has been justly called the bloody massacre 
in Galicia, with the destruction of Cracow as a politi- 
cal entity, were regarded by even the British country- 
gentlemen with strong disapproval. Lord John Rus- 
sell, as Prime Minister, was loudly applauded by both 
sides when he said in Parliament: ^'Though in some 
of the late transactions in Europe our protests have 
been disregarded, our moral force has been increased 
and fortified: for there is no treaty either ancient or 
modern which we have either violated or set 
aside."* 

The continued existence of Cracow as a professedly 
independent state had long been regarded with im- 
patience by all three despotic Powers. They as- 
serted that the free city kept alive the memory of 
Poland as an independent Power, and thus encour- 
aged revolution; that as Cracow had only been con- 
tinned a free city in 1815, because the great military 
monarchies could not agree as to its disposal, they had 
a right, a generation afterwards, in defiance of treaties, 
to incorporate Cracow with Austria. Even Sir Robert 
Peel, whose foreign policy was not his strong point, 
spoke contemptuously of the three Powers asserting 

*See observations on this subject in *' Thirty Tears of 
Foreign Policy, " Pag© 380-1. 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. 97 

that " it was necessary to put an end to Cracow as a 
free city, in order that they might protect themselves 
from its disturbances." IsTotwithstanding the efforts 
of Prince Metternich, representing Austria and 
other reactionary Powers, the constitutional light was 
spreading where so long everything had appeared 
dark. 

. Even the King of Prussia began to speak as an 
enlightened ruler; and the new Pope, Pius thel^inth, 
professed to be a reformer, and on political matters 
appeared willing to consult Lord Palmerston instead 
of Catholic sovereigns. This seemed a strange phe- 
nomenon. If it were not political progress it had 
at all events that appearance. The prospect con- 
tinued to brighten. The Queen of Portugal was 
kept in constitutional paths by Lord Palmerston, who, 
it was thought, thus maintained her throne. In 
Switzerland the existence of the Republic was 
threatened by the support given by France and 
Austria to the action of the Catholic Cantons in 
forming the Sonderbund, a league to enforce educa- 
tion by the Jesuits. But before agreeing to the in- 
tervention of the Five Powers Lord Palmerston in- 
sisted that the principle upon which action was to 
be taken, should be clearly defined. Owing to the 
success of the Diet foreign intervention was averted, 
and the Sonderbund was dissolved. In Italy at the 
end of 1847 there was much uneasiness, even under 
what appeared to be a brilliant sky. But the 
thunder clouds were gathering, even while patriots 
were rejoicing at the prospect of freedom and peace. 
Austria was beginning to experience the result of 
those designs on Italy against which she had been 
warned half a century before, by the great Irish 
Statesman, just as he was sinking into his grave. Her 



98 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

troops assumed from Ferrara a very menacing atti- 
tude to the smaller Italian States. Italian liberals 
looked to Lord Palmerston for advice, if not sub- 
stantial aid. Lord Minto was sent on a special mis- 
sion to Rome, taking Turin and Florence by the way. 
He was heartily welcomed, and his counsels received 
with much respect. In February, 1848, the French 
Monarchy, with its Citizen King, was overthrown al- 
most as suddenly as it had been erected. France, 
and nearly all Europe, were plunged into the throes 
of revolution. 

Under Louis Philippe, a professedly constitutional 
sovereign, France had not made the progress with 
which she had been credited. The enlightened M. 
Guizot, however admirable in a professorial chair, 
grievously disappointed public expectations. He lent 
himself to further the dynastic objects of Louis 
Philippe in Spain: in Switzerland he encouraged the 
Sonderbund, which might have caused the disruption 
of the gallant Republic of the mountaineers: he per- 
sisted in maintaining the very narrow franchise in 
France, when a very moderate reform would have 
satisfied a large number of French citizens, and have 
placed his Royal Master's throne on a much broader 
basis. The Eang at last offered to concede what he 
had just before refused. But the sacrifice of his 
Minister, M. Guizot, did not improve matters. The 
fatal words ^'Too late," which have often sounded 
the knell of governments, sovereigns, and dynasties, 
were very plainly emphasised. The King fled from 
Paris, and concealed himself with his Queen at Trou- 
ville, until he could make his escape to ITewhaven 
under the name of plain Mr. Smith. He was again 
a fugitive, an exile, indebted to British hospitality^ 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. 99 

muttering as lie fled, "Like Charles the Tenth,'' 
"Like Charles the Tenth." Thus ended all the 
schemes, which up to the last had been pursued very 
much in the spirit of the old Bourbon dynasty. 

This was, however, but the beginning of a series 
of revolutions. A Republic was set up, almost from 
a newspaper office, in Paris, and once more the bril- 
liant city gave the law to France. The system of 
centralisation did its work well. 

It seems strange now to read an oration delivered 
in the January of 1848 in the French Chamber of 
Peers, just five weeks before the fall of Louis 
Philippe's throne. The Count de Montalembert de- 
clared that there was no danger from Italy, from 
Austria, or from France. There was only one figure 
in Europe ready to let slip the revolutionary winds. 
This was the Foreign Secretary of the Queen of Eng- 
land. The Count added: "When noble Peers stand 
up in this tribune and speak what they think of the 
Emperor of Austria, and of Prince Metternich, I may 
surely declare my opinion of Lord Palmerston."* 

This speech was much commented upon at the 
time. It was made the text of many leading articles 
in England as well as on the Continent. These com- 
ments had not ceased when France again became a 
Republic, and stimulated the revolutionary spirit 
over the whole of Europe. If this were the work 
of one man, an English statesman, the condition of 
continental Europe must indeed have been volcanic. 
Austria was confronted with great difficulties in 
the Italian States. The King of Sardinia could not 
even if he desired, remain neutral. Austria appealed 
to Lord Palmerston, as the reforming Pope had done. 

* See " Thirty Years of Foreign Policy,'' pp. 392-4. 

LoFC. 



100 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

The English statesman, who had been stigmatised as 
the firebrand of Europe, was asked for protection 
even by the reactionary monarchies. 

This was a strange reversal of the situation. 
Under the circumstances Lord Minto's moderate ad- 
vice could not be entertained by the revolutionists, 
and he had to be recalled. Here again "Too Late" 
echoed in the ears. 

Frederick William the Fourth, King of Prussia, 
distinguished himself at this time by his long 
speeches, and his flattery of the populace, who at 
Berlin called out to him "Hats off," a command he 
was obliged to obey before leaving his capital. Kings 
and emperors were, indeed, in an abject position, and 
yet while sinking so low, sought to rob one another 
of their dominions. At Frankfort there was a cry 
for German unity, and of this the King of Prussia 
soTight to take advantage, while at the same time he 
sought to profit, at the expense of the King of Den- 
mark, by the movement in Schleswig in favour of 
annexation by the German Confederacy. Schleswig 
was accordingly invaded. The rebellion of Hungary, 
which was at last put down by Russian arms, marked 
another era. Kossuth blamed Lord Palmerston for 
not undertaking the defence of Hungary. "All I 
asked of him," said the Hungarian leader, "was one 
little word, and that word he refused to speak." 
Palmerston had also been asked to interfere to save 
Cracow. His answer was that line-of-battle ships 
could not reach Cracow. He afterwards explained 
that the little word Kossuth asked him to speak 
meant war, and nothing less. The Imperial masters 
of many legions care nothing for "little words," un- 
less they can be followed by great acts. 

The Pope, reformer as he professed to be, was 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. 101 

driven from his capital. The world saw with aston- 
ishment that France, while professedly a Republic, 
sent an army to put down another Republic in Rome. 
France under very different forms of government has 
generally seemed strangely inconsistent in its treat- 
ment of the Italian people, blowing hot and cold as 
circumstances might arise. This became still more 
evident under the Second Empire, and later, under 
the Third Republic. 

While thrones were toppling from their bases the 
British people and their government were pursuing 
the even tenor of their way. For a time at least 
there was danger of revolution becoming supreme 
on the Continent ; but the institutions of Great Britain 
were strengthened by the storm, which endangered 
thrones not based on the people's will, and surrounded 
by powerful armies. The Chartists had for years 
been holding a kind of IsTational Convention under an 
Irishman, Feargus O'Connor, and other similar lead- 
ers. When revolutions became militant on the Con- 
tinent, it was a matter of course that the Chartists 
should try their hands at making a great demonstra- 
tion of a physical force character in London. It 
was announced that on the 10th of April, 1848, two 
hundred thousand men would assemble on Kenning- 
ton Common, and proceed across the bridges to pre- 
sent a monster petition to the House of Commons. 

They discovered, however, that to be forewarned 
was to be forearmed. A hundred and fifty thousand 
persons took the oath as special constables. Among 
them v/as Louis N^apoleon, who, before the eventful 
year closed, was to be elected President of the French 
Republic. The Bank of England was fortified and 
occupied by soldiers. The bridges were held by the 
special constables, with large bodies of soldiers kept 



102 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

in the background, ready to support the civil- 
ians had the state of affairs become serious. But the 
Chartists who met on Kennington Common, instead 
of amounting to two hundred thousand only num- 
bered twenty thousand, and their chief, Feargus 
O'Connor, pathetically pleaded a bad cold and a 
blister on his breast. The monster petition was con- 
veyed to Westminster in cabs; and the Chartists 
disjDersed quietly to their homes without coming 
into serious collision with the police, the special 
constables, and the soldiers. Thus ended the at- 
tempt to get up a revolution in England, to keep the 
revolutionists of the Continent in countenance. The 
latter were most contemptuous of the Chartists who 
had shown no fight, and called them cowards. Such 
the Chartists may have appeared to be; they had 
appealed to physical force, and the middle classes in 
their own defence had accepted the challenge. As 
an active political organisation, depending on num- 
bers and class prejudices, Chartism never recovered 
from the effects of this defeat. This was the lesson 
given to the revolutionists by the English people in 
the great year of revolutions. It was the last 
victory of the Duke of Wellington, who still occupied 
the position of Commander-in-Chief, acting on the 
principle not to make a parade of soldiers until the 
necessity came for their active employment. The 
victory of law and order in London was an extraor- 
dinary set off against the revolutions on the Conti- 
nent. It was generally admitted to be an advance 
in political progress ; while in the wild democratic 
outbursts abroad there was very little that was either 
progressive or stable. 

Gibbon closes the thirty-eighth chapter of his His- 
tory with an inquiry whether Europe, which he re- 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. IQS 

gards as one vast commonwealth, is ever likely to be 
again overwhelmed by a deluge of barbarians. This 
question he decides in the negative. With great 
complacency he writes; ^^If a savage conqueror 
should issue from the deserts of Tartary, he must 
repeatedly vanquish the robust peasants of Russia, 
the numerous armies of Germany, the gallant nobles 
of France, and the intrepid freemen of Britain, 
who might confederate for their common defence. 
Should the victorious barbarians carry slavery and 
desolation as far as the Atlantic Ocean, ten thousand 
vessels would transport beyond the possibility of 
pursuit, the remains of civilized society ; and Europe 
would revive and flourish in the American world, 
which is already filled with her colonies and institu- 
tions." 

It does not appear to have occurred to the great 
historian of the Roman Empire, that anarchy might 
take root in the very midst of civilisation. JN^either 
was such a thought entertained by the more phil- 
osophic historian, David Hume, who saw nothing in 
France but a gallant nation devoted to its sovereigns, 
contrasted with the turbulent English, who had, 
through the Puritan soldiery, cut off the head of a 
J^ing. It was reserved for a writer, after the 
great outburst of the revolutionary element in 1848, 
to announce as a discovery that the barbarians were at 
the gates, and even in the streets of the proudest and 
most enlightened of cities, and could show their 
power when least expected. 

In the l^ovember of 1848 the conclusion of the first 
two volumes of Macaulay's History of England was 
written. As I have already pointed out, Macaulay in 
one of his Essays censured Burke for not having 
thought better of the French Revolution, and assumed 



104 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

that with the erection of the constitutional monarchy 
under Louis Philippe, the world had seen the last of 
French Revolutions. But Macaulay had found it 
necessary to modify his opinions. The pages of his 
History, written in 1848, contain his dehberate convic- 
tions, and were intended for posterity. "All around 
us," he says, "the world is convulsed by the agonies of 
great nations. Governments which seemed lately 
likely to stand during ages have been on a sudden 
shaken and overthrown. The proudest capitals of 
Western Europe have streamed with civil blood. All 
evil passions, the thirst of gain, and the thirst of 
vengeance, the antipathy of class to class, the anti- 
pathy of race to race, have broken loose from the 
control of divine and human laws. Fear and anxiety 
have clouded the faces and depressed the hearts of 
millions. Trade has been suspended and industry 
paralysed. The rich have become poor and the poor 
have become poorer. Doctrines hostile to all sci- 
ences, to all arts, to all industry, to all domestic char- 
ities, doctrines, which if carried into effect would 
undo all that thirty centuries have done for mankind, 
and would make the fairest provinces of France and 
Germany as savage as Congo or Patagonia, have been 
avowed from the tribune and defended by the sword. 
Europe has been threatened with subjugation by 
barbarians compared with whom the barbarians who 
marched under Attila and Alboin were enlightened 
and humane. The tried friends of the people have 
with the deepest sorrow owned that interests more 
precious than any political privileges were in jeop- 
ardy, and that it might be necessary to sacrifice even 
liberty to save civilisation." 

These sentences, as contrasted with those by Gib- 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EtJKOPlJ. 105 

bon just quoted, deserve to be given in full. They 
will well repay consideration. Where, at the time 
they were written, lay political progress according 
to Macaulay's mind? Where was the grand hope 
which led him to say that notwithstanding the crimes 
of the French Revolution, those who deplored them 
and denounced them ought to have looked forward? 
Where was the great superiority of Macaulay, a 
modern Whig, over Burke as an old Whig, in esti- 
mating the effect of great revolutions? The year 
1848 passed away, without at least leaving a quarter 
of a century of revolutions and wars in its train. 

There was, however, one dark spot in the British 
Isles. O'Connell died on his way to Home in the 
May of 1847. His last days had been saddened by 
the formation of the Irish physical force party, as dis- 
tinguished from that, of which he was the acknowl- 
edged chief , depending ostentatiously on moral force. 
At the time the Chartists were preparing for their 
great demonstration, which ended in such a failure, a 
deputation, with Williapi Smith O'Brien, M. P. at its 
head, went to Paris virtually to ask assistance from the 
Provisional Republican Government against the 
Government of the United Kingdom. 'No such assist- 
ance, of course, could be given. On returning to the 
House of Commons Smith O'Brien was received with 
great indignation. He never again entered the 
House, and declared that the people could now judge 
whether the great assembly, afterwards called by 
Mr. Bright the Mother of Free Parliaments, was an 
assembly of gentlemen. In Ireland O'Brien at- 
tempted to get up a rebellion, which ended ludic- 
rously for himself in a cabbage garden. It is not 
necessary to refer to the prosecutions, the trials. 



106 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

and convictions of the more prominent members of 
what was called the Young Ireland Party. In how 
far Messrs. Smith O'Brien, Meagher, Mitchel, and 
Gavan Duffy, with others who might be named, can 
be considered to represent political progress, or 
whether they represented it at all, every reader can 
judge. It is a question of individual opinion. On 
this question we find ourselves treading on ashes 
under which the fire may still be burning. The 
Queen's University was established soon afterwards, 
to find its Colleges condemned as irreligious by the 
Synod of Thurles. A Roman Catholic University 
was started. The Queen visited Ireland, and held a 
Court in Dublin Castle. But the antagonistic ele- 
ments among the population were manifested in a 
great riot at Dolly's Brae, and subsequently in other 
localities. In these events little that can be 
justly called political progress may be seen. 

Austria continued to have her own difficulties both 
in her capital, and in Italy, where the revolution was 
progressing, while the Russians were putting down 
the Hungarians, and Radetzky had defeated the 
Sardinians at ISTavaro. Metternich had had to fly 
from Vienna, and after another insurrection in that 
capital the Emperor Ferdinand the First had to take 
refuge in Innsbruck. In December, the Emperor 
abdicated in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph, 
who afterwards revoked the constitution, and even 
abolished trial by jury. 'No sovereign ever suc- 
ceeded to a more arduous inheritance. On his head 
all the misfortunes of the House of Atreus may 
be said to have accumulated; but he won, and 
in his old age has retained the respect of 
those who most blamed his earlier unconsti- 
tutional policy. Personally he appears as the one 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. 107 

connecting link of the separate members of the much 
divided Austrian Monarchy. The flight of the de- 
feated Hungarian leaders into Turkey suddenly re- 
vived the whole Eastern question. Russia demanded 
the fugitive Poles: Austria, the Hungarians. Sir 
Stratford Canning, under the direction of Lord Pal- 
merston, advised the Porte to refuse compliance with 
these demands, and the actual value of the Treaty 
of the 13th of July, 1841, was seen. The English 
fleet appeared in Besika Bay professedly to support 
Turkey against Russian and Austrian dictation. The 
difliculty was for a short time overcome. The Rus- 
sian Bear had to draw in its claws: only to prepare a 
little later for a more resolute spring. 

King Otho of Greece had persisted in disregarding 
the good advice given him by both Lord Aberdeen and 
Lord Palmerston. Under Russian protection he had 
sought to free himself from his constitutional engage- 
ments. The laws were most arbitrarily administered, 
justice in any proper sense of the word being utterly 
disregarded. The lonians, the Maltese, and others 
who had a right to British protection were treated 
worse than King Otho's recognised Greek subjects. 
A distinguished gentlemen, Mr. Einlay, could get no 
payment for land the King had taken for his own 
private uses. A Gibraltar Jew, M. Pacifico, also a 
British subject, had his house broken into and his 
furniture destroyed by a mob, a very short distance 
from the guard house. The representations of the 
British Minister at Athens were treated almost with 
indifference, until in January, 1850, the British 
squadron made its appearance off the coast. 'Not- 
withstanding the appeal of the King to Prance and 
Russia as guaranteeing Powers, his Greek Majesty 



108 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

was informed that none of his vessels would be al- 
lowed to leave the Piraeus. A steamer which ven- 
tured out found itself taken possession of by one of 
the British ships of war. The French ambassador 
went to Athens to arrange this matter: but while a 
reasonable convention was being drawn up in London, 
the Greek Government had to surrender at discretion 
to the British fleet. 

This was regarded as a very high handed proceed- 
ing. A strong Russian despatch was fulminated 
against Lord Palmerston, all of whose political op- 
ponents took advantage of the opportunity. For 
some time scarcely anything was heard of but Don 
Pacifico, of whom the British Foreign ^Minister was 
represented as the arrogant champion. Resolutions 
were carried in the House of Lords condemning Lord 
Palmerston's action towards Greece, whose weakness 
pleaded strongly in her defence. Immediately after 
the condemnatory resolutions were passed in the House 
of Lords, counter resolutions were called for 
in the House of Commons. I was in the gallery of 
the House when the Prime Minister was questioned 
with respect to the attitude the Government were 
prepared to take up in reply to the Lords. The scene 
is still vividly before my mind. Lord John Russell, 
amid great excitement, with his arms crossed upon 
his breast, replied with much dignity and resolution. 
In the course of a comparatively short speech he 
stated that the action of the majority of the Peers 
was unusual, and while it might cause embarrassment 
to the Government and to the House of Commons, 
to no institution might it be more injurious than to 
the House of Lords. This declaration was received 
with loud and significant cheers from the Ministerial 
benches. It sounded like a declaration of war. 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. 109 

Turning towards Lord Palmerston, who sat with 
folded arms, his hat drawn over his brow, Lord John 
Russell went on to say: "My noble friend is not the 
Minister of Austria, of Russia, or of any other Power : 
but the Minister of England. The honour of Eng- 
land, and the interests of England, — these are the 
objects to which he has been devoted, and to which 
he and the Government will continue to be devoted." 
I quote these remarkable words from memory. 
They made a great impression at the time: and be- 
came still more remarkable, and even perplexing, 
when read by the light of Lord John Russell's action 
with respect to Lord Palmerston so soon afterwards. 

The debate, on the counter resolution proposed by 
Mr. Roebuck, continued four nights. It was one of 
the most important that ever took place in the House 
of Commons. It has, too, a pathetic interest, for it 
was in the course of it that Sir Robert Peel delivered 
his last speech. On the following afternoon he met 
with his fatal accident on Constitution Hill, and a 
few days afterwards died in great pain. His friend 
Mr. Gladstone, in the course of the debate, replied 
to the Foreign Minister in a very able and compre- 
hensive speech. Lord Palmerston had quoted the 
words Civis Romanus sum, as used in one of the 
great speeches of Cicero, and applied them to the 
position of Englishmen in foreign countries, where it 
was the duty of the British Minister to protect Brit- 
ish subjects against injustice. Against this assump- 
tion Mr. Gladstone protested. It was remarked, 
however, that his attitude to Lord Palmerston was 
very different from that of his brother Peelite, Sir 
James Graham. 

The debate and the division with a majority of 



110 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

forty-six for the Government raised Lord Palmers- 
ton immensely in public opinion. He was now re- 
garded as the most popular Minister of his time : peo- 
ple, indeed, compared him with the great Lord Chat- 
ham. Here political progress may be recognised. 
England had left the trammels of the Holy Alliance 
far behind, and stood forth in her own strength boldly 
facing the despotisms of the world. On the other 
hand the Minister was thought to be too high handed, 
and his reception of certain patriotic deputations, and 
the language they used respecting foreign Govern- 
ments, called forth much criticism, especially from 
The TimeSy which had during the recent controversies 
taken a very unfavourable view of Lord Palmerston's 
conduct. 

The public thought Lord Palmerston more 
securely established in his office than ever. He was 
undoubtedly more popular. But he had his own 
difficulties with his colleagues and with the Court. 
Shortly afterwards Lord John Russell wrote him a 
severe admonition from the Queen for having sent 
off some despatches without regarding her Majesty's 
suggestions, and for having sent others without even 
giving the Queen time to take them into considera- 
tion. This revelation, to those who had heard or 
read Lord John Russell's defence of his colleague as 
not "the Minister of Austria, of Russia, or of any 
other Power," came as a surprise. It seemed a 
startling contradiction, as The Times, though opposed 
to Lord Palmerston's foreign policy, delicately 
hinted. 

In the December of 1851, Louis ISTapoleon, Presi- 
dent of the French Republic, perpetrated his famous 
coup dH etat. He became master of France : the Re- 
public was destroyed. The public learnt with sur- 



POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE. m 

prise soon afterwards that Lord Palmerston had been 
dismissed from office for having given entirely on his 
own responsibility an official sanction to the act of 
Louis IsTapoleon. 

That Lord Palmerston had expressed to the French 
Ambassador an opinion that under the circumstances 
this step on the part of the Prince was justifiable, 
was admitted in the debate which followed in the 
House of Commons. But did this imply an official 
sanction, as Lord John Russell and his friends main- 
tained ? Palmerston himself scouted the, idea. It 
was not, he said, usual for French Presidents or Sov- 
ereigns abroad to look for sanction of their proceed- 
ings to the Foreign Minister of England, nor to the 
British Government. On this question there were 
decided differences of opinion, which have never 
been reconciled. His veteran colleague Lord Lans- 
downe wrote to Lord Palmerston expressing regret at 
his dismissal; and so, strange to say, did Earl Grey, 
who had declined to take office with him in the Dec- 
ember of 1845. Thus by a strange irony of fate 
we find Lord John Russell prevented from forming 
his Government to repeal the Corn Laws because at 
the Foreign Office Lord Palmerston was thought 
likely to be obnoxious to the French Sovereign and 
his Government, and now, six years afterwards 
Palmerston summarily dismissed from office for 
being considered too friendly to the ruler of France 
and his advisers. 



112 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY, 



CHAPTEK Vni. 

THE CRIMEAN WAEI THE INDIAN MUTINY. 

LoKD Palmerston's summary dismissal from office 
could not be expected to render Louis Napoleon, the 
author of the coup d^ etat, more friendly to Lord John 
Russell and his weakened Government. That the 
Ministry were seriously weakened was generally 
acknowledged. Mr. Roebuck, Avho had taken so de- 
cided a part in the vote of confidence in Lord Palmer- 
ston, asked indignantly, when Parliament met for the 
session of 1851: What there was in which the sup- 
porters of the Government and the Liberal party could 
feel confidence, when the Minister round whom all the 
political battles had been fought had been dismissed? 
Lord John Russell felt the taunt, and somewhat 
haughtily replied that Mr. Roebuck and those who 
thought with him had their remedy. The remedy 
was soon found. Owing to the feeling of distrust 
caused by the prospect of the President of the French 
Republic becoming Emperor, a Militia Bill was intro- 
duced, which Lord Palmerston severely criticised and 
held up to ridicule. The Bill was defeated by a ma- 
jority of eleven, and the Ministry resigned. Lord 
Palmerston's motive in bringing about this defeat was 
well understood, and was not concealed by himself. 
"Writing to his brother, on the 24th of February, he 
said: "I have had my tit for tat with John Russell, 
and I turned him out on Friday last,'' Lord John 



CRIMEAN WAR : INDIAN MUTINY. II3 

Russell candidly admitted to his brother-in-law : " It's 
all fair. I dealt him a blow, and he has given me one 
in return." * This was not an issue in which political 
progress was involved. The Militia has continued to 
be a more or less difficult question to different admi- 
nistrations. It still remains a difficulty, shadowing 
for conscription at the close of the nineteenth century, 
nearly half a century after Lord John RusselFs de- 
feat. 

Lord Derby's first administration succeeded Lord 
John Russell's and passed a Militia Act. But the 
Ministry fell after some twelve months in office, on 
Mr. Disraeli's budget. Mr. Gladstone in a great 
speech assailed his rival with much power, dissected 
his various provisions, and concluded by appealing to 
Conservative finance. The Coalition Government 
with Lord Aberdeen at its head was formed. Mr. 
Disraeli, in the hour of his defeat, had said that 
" England did not love Coalitions." The new Coali- 
tion Ministry from the first may be said to have had a 
strong centrifugal tendency: the ministers were cer- 
tainly not much in love with one another. With the 
Emperor of France apparently in a position of isola- 
tion, the Russian Emperor thought that he saw his 
opportunity. The Tzar wrote of Turkey as ^^ a sick 
man dying," and planned a partition of the Sultan's 
possessions, keeping for himself, the lion's share. 
Ostensibly the dispute between Russia and Turkey 
concerned the guardianship of the Holy Places, es- 
pecially the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem. Of these 
both Russia and Erance claimed to be the protectors. 
But the real cause of the dispute with Turkey lay 
much deeper. The Emperor Nicholas was deeply 

* See Lord John Hmsell hj Stuart Eeid, p. 190. 



114 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

interested in the protection of the Christian popula- 
tions suffering from Turkish misrule; he was ambi- 
tious to extend his power to the Dardanelles, and to 
open a way for Russian commerce to the Mediterra- 
nean. Louis Napoleon, who, a year after he had made 
himself Prince President of the French Republic, 
became, by another plebiscite, Emperor, was desirous 
of war. By it he saw an opportunity of gaining in 
Europe a position that had been hitherto con- 
temptuously denied him, and of becoming an ally of 
the British Government. The Russian army on July 
2nd, 1853, crossed the Pruth, and occupied the Prin- 
cipalities of MoldaTda and Wallachia. 

Lord Aberdeen was essentially a minister of peace. 
He was warmly supported by Mr. Gladstone, who a 
few months before had addressed to him his two 
letters on the misgovernment of the King of !N^aples. 
Mr. Gladstone was not merely a political but a warm 
personal friend of the Prime Minister, and was justly 
considered devoted to the cause of peace. Relying on 
these pacific inclinations the Emperor of Russia went 
too far. He could not, he thought, without humilia- 
tion withdraw his troops from the Principalities, nor 
his absolute pretensions to be the protector of the 
Greek Christians. The English and French fleets ap- 
peared in the Dardanelles, l^egotiations were carried 
on, and a great deal was said about a Vienna ITote, 
which seemed to complicate matters. Lord Claren- 
don had to admit that his country was drifting 
towards war. The Prime Minister desired to be left 
to his hopes and prayers for peace: not a command- 
ing attitude on the part of a statesman at the head of 
a great government. A deputation from the Peace 
Society went to St. Petersburg to interview the Em- 



CRIMEAN WAR: INDIAN MUTINY. Hg 

peror, and returned witli the gratifying intelligence 
tliat lie had very mild eyes. 

But these mild eyes profited nothing in the cause of 
peace. The Russian fleet, almost in presence of the 
British, destroyed the Turkish at Sinope, where the 
cynic Diogenes after his very just banishment con- 
demned his enemies to live. Here may be noted the 
great change in British public opinion with respect 
to Russia. When the Turkish fleet was destroyed at 
ISTavarino, nearly a quarter of a century before, the 
British Liberals rejoiced. It was supposed to be a 
step in political progress. Liberals had sympathised 
with Greece against Turkey, and did not approve of 
the statement in the King's Speech, in opening the 
session of 1829, to the effect that the destruction of the 
Turkish fleet was "an untoward event." Both Lord 
John Russell and Lord Palmerston expressed their sur- 
prise that any sympathy should be shown with such a 
Power as Turkey. 

But when, nearly a quarter of a century afterwards, 
Russia destroyed another Turkish fleet, the indigna- 
tion of both Liberals and Conservatives was general. 
Russia was looked upon as the encroaching despotism, 
bent on carrying out the policy of Peter the Great, 
taking possession of Constantinople, and giving the 
law to all Europe. Had not ISTapoleon when in exile 
prophesied that Europe would become Cossack? Was 
that prophecy now about to be fulfilled? The Tzar 
insisted on his protectorate over the Holy Places and 
over the Greek Christians in Turkey, and showed no 
intention of withdrawing his troops beyond the Pruth. 
The Emperor of the French, who had already shown 
great activity in many parts of the world, insisted on 
the protectorate of France over the Holy Places. 



116 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Thus^ as Lord John Russell finely deprecated, tlie 
tomb of Christ became a cause, or we may rather say 
a pretence of quarrel between Christians. 

To enter into details with respect to the various 
negotiations preceding the Crimean War, and into 
the events of that war itself, would be beyond the 
province of this volume. There can be no doubt 
that the Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, before the 
war began showed great weakness, and relied too 
much on his friendship with the Emperor Nicholas. 
The Emperor himself relied too much on an agree- 
ment come to when he was on a visit to the Queen 
in 1844, — an agreement which was far from having 
the comprehensive character he maintained at this 
time, even appealing personally to Her Majesty. The 
Coalition Ministry was essentially weak. It is not 
indeed true, as Mr. Disraeli had asserted, that Eng- 
land does not love coalitions. There had been coali- 
tions very powerful and popular; one to carry on the 
war with France in the time of Queen Anne; and 
another, between the first William Pitt and the Duke 
of Newcastle, to carry on the Seven Years' War at 
the close of George the Second's reign. But the 
Coalition under Lord Aberdeen was neither success- 
ful in peace, nor, afterwards, in war. Lord Strat- 
ford Canning's return to Constantinople embittered 
the Emperor Nicholas, who had refused to receive 
him as ambassador in the early time of Earl Grey's 
Reform Administration. It can scarcely be said that 
the influence of Canning was pacific. The young 
Sultan was encouraged to resist, and at last to declare 
war. 

The war can scarcely be considered to have been 
carried on with a definite policy. It was tentative. 



CRIMEAN WAR: INDIAN MUTINY. 117 

The Prime Minister disliked the war. The Duke of 
IsTewcastle, who curiously enough at its beginning, 
was both Colonial Secretary and Secretary of War, 
had no official experience as an administrator of war. 
From the beginning, and until Lord Palmerston took 
the first position in the Cabinet, there was a great deal 
that was half-hearted. Lord John RusselFs sudden 
retirement in the face of Mr. Roebuck's resolution 
condemning the conduct of the war, placed the Min- 
isters, as Lord Palmerston said, in a position in which 
they ought not to have been placed by a colleague. 
This Lord John Kussell himself afterwards admitted. 
Mr. Roebuck's resolution was carried by a large ma- 
jority. Lord Aberdeen retired. His Peelite col- 
leagues soon afterwards followed, and what was prac- 
tically a new government was formed under Lord 
Palmerston, who was the master of the situation. 
The stars in their courses had fought in his favour. 
Mr. Gladstone virtually went into opposition, and 
soon thought it becoming to proclaim his belief in 
"the paramount destiny of Russia." 

1^0 person can look back at that time, either from 
a military or political point of view, with any satis- 
faction. Some gallant deeds were done by British 
soldiers in the Crimea. But the commissariat, even 
with the great naval Power commanding the sea, was 
sadly deficient. Though Balaclava and Inkerman 
are still household names, they awaken painful recol- 
lections. The day on which the Guards on returning 
from the war entered London was considered a great 
day, and they were received with wild enthusiasm, 
but those who saw the look on the countenances of 
those brave soldiers will never forget the impression 
produced. It was that of men who for many months 



118 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

had felt tliemselves under tlie shadow of impending 
death. They knew it: they felt it: they could not 
hide it. 

The war added between forty and fifty millions to 
the British IN'ational Debt, and cost twenty-five thou- 
sands of British lives. Much the larger number of 
the soldiers died, not on the battlefield, but from 
the hardships to which they had been exposed. For 
many years England may be said to have been suffer- 
ing from the evils of a long peace. Even under the 
Duke of Wellington as a kind of permanent Com- 
mander-in-Chief the military organization had been 
much neglected: the money spent on the army con- 
tinued to be grudged by professed reformers and 
Liberals. Public men like Cobden and Bright, after 
their victory over the Corn Laws, had naturally great 
democratic influence, especially in the large towns, 
which Cobden declared would govern the country. 
Lord Palmerston in 1851 had called the first of the 
Great Exhibitions, the ^^Temple of Peace." Peace 
indeed was alone thought of, until the nation found 
itself without preparation not only drifting into, but 
suddenly involved in war. 

The people, however, beyond a small circle, includ- 
ing the members of the Peace Society, even during 
the misfortunes in the Crimea, were convinced that 
they were pursuing the right policy. They un- 
doubtedly considered that the policy represented 
progress and not reaction. Lord John Russell, before 
his sudden retirement from Lord Aberdeen's Ministry, 
had induced the Earl and his colleagues to allow him 
to bring in another Reform Bill, which as the horizon 
became blood-red he had to withdraw. But he had 
shown that the nickname of "Finality John" was mis- 



CRIMEAN WAR : INDIAN MUTINY. 119 

applied. Lord P aimer ston, as his letters prove, was 
much opposed to Lord John^s proposals, which had 
they been introduced when circumstances allowed 
them to be fairly and deliberately considered, would 
have been found to embody reasonable and moderate 
reforms. 

It has been said with some truth that though the 
British Government and people have often been slow 
to enter on war, when they are once in it they are 
slow to make peace. This was not the case with 
France. The Emperor became anxious to come to 
terms with Russia. England might only be getting 
her hand into the contest, but her principal ally 
wished to withdraw his. The treaty of Peace was 
signed at Paris on the 30th of March, 1856. Russia 
had to give up her control of the Danube, her pre- 
tensions to a protectorate of the Principalities, and her 
military and naval authority in the Black Sea, which 
was neutralised, — a neutralisation which was re- 
pudiated by Russia with the consent of Prince Bis- 
marck and Germany on the defeat of Prance in the 
great war of nearly thirty years ago. The most impor- 
tant point was the confirmation of the privileges 
granted to the Turkish Christians, with an undertak- 
ing on the part of the Sultan to protect them from mis- 
government, and to give them equality with his Mus- 
sulman subjects. This was considered a set off to the 
claim of Russia, which could not be maintained in the 
face of defeat, to be the defender of the Greek 
Christians. 

It was considered that a great point had been 
gained. Was this so? Did the results of the war 
represent political progress in the middle of the nine- 
teenth century? On this subject there have been, 
and still are differences of opinion. A large number 



120 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

of people, and those among tlie most enlightened and 
intelligent, have in recent years declared that the 
Crimean War was a great mistake, that it marked a 
step backward and not forward. Burke's words on 
the Turkish Empire, which are still quoted with ap- 
probation, have already been referred to; but they 
deserve to be given in full. "I have never before 
heard it held forth", Burke wrote, "that the Turkish 
Empire has ever been considered any part of the 
balance of power in Europe. They despise and 
condemn all Christian princes as infidels, and only 
wish to subdue them and their people. What have 
these worse than savages to do with the Powers of 
Europe but to spread war, destruction, and pestilence, 
amongst them? The ministers and the policy which 
shall give these people any weight in Europe will de- 
serve all the bans and curses of posterity." To those 
words, written by Burke in the last part of his political 
career, many people in all parts of the world will even 
now cry Amen ! 

But those who were most interested in the Crimean 
War cannot even now admit that it was a mistake. 
Many years afterwards Mr. Gladstone, who in his 
latest years became bitterly opposed to the Sultan, 
said that in its groundwork the Crimean War was 
the vindication of European law against unprovoked 
Russian aggression. This assumed that the integrity 
and independence of the Ottoman Empire ought to 
be defended against Russia. Russia was undoubtedly 
checked in her advance on Turkey. The war proved 
to Russia that she would not be allowed to carry out 
her aggressive designs without European resistance, 
that the other Powers would have a great deal to say 



CRIMEAN WAR: INDIAN MUTINY. 121 

before she could establish herself at Constantinople 
and command the Dardanelles. 

This was undoubtedly a great gain, which could 
not have been obtained in any other manner. In 
later years, when Russia resumed her career of aggres- 
sion on Turkey, it was shown that whatever might be 
the evils of the Sultan's misgovernment, the Turks as 
a fighting power had still to be reckoned with, and 
that from a military point of view they could not be 
regarded as effete. 

The British statesmen who promoted the Crimean 
War, and made the Treaty of Peace at Paris in March, 
1856, have passed away. 'Not one of them still sur- 
vives. In justice to their memory it must be said that 
they believed in the sincerity of the pledges given by 
the Porte, who by the Hatti Sherif promulgated in 
1853 guaranteed the rights of the Greek Christians, 
and by the Pirman of February, 1856, promised civil 
equality and religious liberty to all Christian subjects 
of the Ottoman Empire. The Firman professed to 
abolish "every distinction making any subjects of the 
Empire inferior to any other class on account of their 
religion, language, and race.'' The solemn pledges 
contained in those proclamations were regarded as part 
of the Treaty of Peace. British statesmen did not 
think that, instead of endeavouring to improve the 
condition of the Christian populations under her care, 
Turkey would cynically disregard the undertakings 
into which she had entered, and violate both in spirit 
and in letter her solemn assurances. It was only by 
slow degrees that British statesmen and the British 
people learned to estimate Turkish promises at their 
proper worth. 



122 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

At the time of the Crimean War Great Britain was 
regarded as the special champion of Turkey. The 
conduct of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, who for many 
years had been our Ambassador at Constantinople, 
lent colour to the impression. But in 1858 he re- 
turned to England and was succeeded by Sir H. Lyt- 
ton Bulwer. The pledges given by the Porte rend- 
ered the position of the Christians in many districts 
rather worse than better. Stories of ill-treatment, 
and of massacres disturbed the public mind. In 1860 
Lord Dufferin was sent as British Commissioner into 
the Lebanon, to enquire into the treatment of the 
Christians. lie was said to have given their oppressor 
a lesson by running into a creek with his yacht, land- 
ing, and summarily hanging a Pasha caught in the act 
of murder. I have reason to believe on the best au- 
thority that this alleged incident did not occur in the 
manner stated. But the report, which was widely 
circulated, produced a great impression at the time, 
and probably had a good effect. 

A year after the signature of the Treaty of Peace 
putting an end to the Crimean War, the British 
public, as well as the Indian officials, were startled by 
what is called the Indian Mutiny. But in reality the 
mutiny was confined to the native, or Sepoy regiments 
in Bengal. This occurred just a century after the 
British Empire in India had been established by the 
victory of Clive at Plassey. It is believed that 
greased cartridges, which the natives thought were 
introduced to destroy their caste, were the immediate 
cause of the mutiny. The retreat and massacre in 
Afghanistan a quarter of a century before had prob- 
ably weakened British prestige, and the annexation of 
Oudh, in 1856, may have contributed to a union of 



CRIMEAN WAR : INDIAN MUTINY. 123 

Mohammedans and Hindoos. But the main cause of 
the rising was the want of organisation of the British 
military forces in India, and too great a reliance on 
native troops. These were as six to one of the 
British ; they had the command of most of the strong 
places, and a large portion of the artillery. The 
massacres that followed were of an appalling char- 
acter: and for a time, at least, the British power in 
India was in danger of being utterly swept away. 

The Emperor of the French was good enough to ' 
offer the assistance of troops to put down the Mutiny. 
But Lord Palmerston, with the precedent of the effect 
of Russian assistance to Austria in defeating the Hun- 
garian rebellion before his mind, firmly declined the 
proposal. ^^I am strongly of opinion," he wrote, 
"that we ought to win this innings against the Sepoys 
off our own bat." 

Lord Canning, upon whom devolved the task of 
suppressing the Mutiny, was accused at the time of 
weakness, and was called "Clemency" Canning. But 
this is a reproach which no longer exists. It is now 
regarded as his especial honour that when the passions 
were so furiously excited he made a noble stand to 
save the innocent blood. Driven to bay, and for a 
time in danger of being overwhelmed, the British 
soon reasserted their supremacy. In no conflict has 
the superiority of race over race been more signally 
displayed. It is not necessary to dwell upon that 
heroic story. Few people would express the opinion 
that political progress was not concerned in the 
triumph of the British arms over the Indian 
mutineers, or that the cause of humanity, civilisation, 
and peace, would have been advanced by leaving the 
two great Asiatic races in India to fight it out between 



124 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

themselves. Tlie native races, however, would not 
have been left to themselves, even if we had with- 
drawn from India. Other actors would have appeared 
upon the scene. Russia, who may be said to be 
almost at Herat, the gate of India, has been steadily 
feeling her way, since the Crimean War, through 
Central Asia. She has sought to make the ruler of 
Afghanistan a creature of her own, and, in the event 
of another war with Great Britain, is credited with 
wishing to appear with her armed battalions on the 
banks of the Indus. 

The great nations of the European continent, have 
no intention of remaining within their ancient limits. 
Some of them are dreaming of world-wide Empires, 
which exist for the most part in Imperial imagina- 
tions. In the race for Empire Great Britain has out- 
stripped them all: though France has not forgotten 
that she was once in a fair way of anticipating Eng- 
land in forming an Indian Empire, of which the un- 
fortunate Dupleix was the first to recognise the 
practicability. 

A great change in the organisation of British power 
in India was recognised as inevitable after the Mutiny. 
At each renewal of the East India Company's Charter 
changes had been made: but it gradually became evi- 
dent that the great corporation had outgrown itself, 
and was no longer the beneficial anomaly it had 
formerly been pronounced. 

In the days of Clive and Warren Hastings many 
arbitrary and oppressive acts had been committed by 
the rulers of India. The House of Commons had 
formally condemned some of Clivers proceedings, 
while acknowledging that he had rendered great 
public services. It is impossible to defend the treat- 



CRIMEAN WAR: INDIAN MUTINY. 125 

ment of the Rohillas and of the Begums of Oudh by- 
Warren Hastings, or other misdeeds that stained his 
arduous administration. His apologists, however, main- 
tained that Hastings had also rendered great public 
services, and this scarcely any one would now deny. 
But at a time when great principles of political moral- 
ity and political progress were not so generally recog- 
nised as they now are, committees of the House of 
Commons, after elaborate and careful enquiry, con- 
demned in the strongest manner the unscrupulous 
measures which the first of the Governors-General of 
India had on several occasions adopted. It is well to 
remember that the impeachment of Hastings was 
sanctioned by a House of Commons led by Dundas 
and Pitt, and in which the Whigs had been in a hope- 
less minority since the defeat of the Coalition 
Ministry. 

That the eminent men who understood the heavy 
task of impeaching Hastings were influenced by the 
noblest motives, few will now care to dispute. Those 
who view the question from an independent stand- 
point believe that the famous trial, which lasted over 
seven years, produced great public benefits, and marks 
a new epoch in political progress, in the best sense 
of the words. This, if I am not mistaken, is the 
opinion of recent Viceroys. 

The great trial, if it did nothing else, established 
a high standard of political morality for the guidance 
of our rulers in the East. None of Hastings' succes- 
sors have rendered themselves liable to the charges 
brought against the first Governor-General of India. 
Though the accusers of Hastings retired nominally 
defeated from Westminister Hall, many people con- 
sider, that J so far as their public objects were con- 



126 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

cerned, their victory was complete. Their objects 
were to promote the good government of India, to 
protect many millions of people who were unable to 
protect themselves, to throw over them the Parlia- 
mentary aegis, to give them as far as practicable the 
benefit of the British Constitution, to show, as the 
greatest of the managers engaged in the impeachment 
said, that under the British Constitution there could 
be no such thing as geographical morality, that a 
crime committed in India under delegated British 
authority was of the same dye, and liable to the same 
punishment as a similar crime committed in Great 
Britain. 

Has not this great principle ever since been asserted 
and respected ? Is it not now acted upon in India, and 
throughout the whole British Empire? "VVe have only 
to look at the proceedings of the immediate successors 
of Hastings to recognise what a change had taken 
place in the administration of India. Sir John Shore, 
Lord Wellesley, Lord Cornwallis, Lord Minto, Lord 
Moira, the Marquis of Hastings, Lord Amherst, Lord 
William Bentinck, are justly regarded as wise and 
beneficient rulers of India. The same may be said 
of their successors. Lord Dalhousie and Lord Canning 
practically sacrificed their lives for the good of the 
people whom they had been sent out to govern. 
When Lord Dalhousie, in the last year of his Gover- 
nor-Generalship, ordered General Outram to under- 
take the administration of Oudh, the reason given was 
that the British Government would be guilty in the 
sight of God and man, if it any longer sustained by 
its countenance a government ^ ^fraught with the 
sufferings of millions." 

When the Charter of the East India Company 



CRIMEAN WAR: INDIAN MUTINY. 127 

was renewed in 1853, it was not, as it had been ever 
since the Regulating Act of Lord ITorth, for a fixed 
term of years, but for an indefinite period which might 
at any time be terminated by Parliament. During 
the discussion Mr. Disraeli spoke of a time when there 
might be a formal renewal of the Company's Charter. 
"Some of us now present," he said, "may be here when 
this question is again fully considered. Perhaps I may 
be one." ^one of the members then thought that 
the abolition of the Charter was so near. After the 
Mutiny the Charter stood condemned. Its abolition 
was only a question of time; and the change was one 
that has not been regretted. For many years the 
great corporation had ceased to be a trading com- 
pany, and its position under the control of the Govern- 
ment had become an anomaly. 

The East India Company had developed grave de- 
fects which were irreconcilable with the spirit and 
progress of the age. Prom the time of Hastings the 
tendency had been to foster a bureaucratic spirit 
antagonistic to the British people, and hostile to the 
free working of British institutions. The officials 
of the Company, isolated by time and distance from 
England, grew to look upon themselves as holding 
independent positions. They formed a separate 
governing caste, by whom public opinion was regarded 
with contempt. They had their own ideas, their own 
ways, and the longer they continued in India the more 
inveterate became their prejudices. This school of 
administration, which Hastings formed, and of which 
he was the especial representative, continued long 
after he had left India, and was living an octogenarian 
at Daylesford the seat of his ancestors. By Indian 
officials Hastings was, of course, regarded as a much 



128 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

injured man, and the managers of his impeachment, 
especially Burke, cruel oppressors more than half 
mad. 

Macaulay's judgment upon these questions is 
essentially sane. His writings, with all their rhetori- 
cal brilliancy and study of effect, have as their basis 
something of the commonplace. He seldom at- 
tempted to rise beyond a certain level to higher things. 
But his six years' knowledge and experience of India 
render his judgment upon Indian questions of great 
value. The conclusions expressed in the essay on 
Warren Hastings are very much those of Burke him- 
self, and they have been quite as much condemned by 
those who have breathed the Indian official atmos- 
pliere. It is also significant that when Macaulay was 
drawing up the Indian Penal Code, he was regarded 
by the ordinary Indian placemen with great dislike 
and distrust.* He was supposed to look on Indian 
affairs from an independent point of view, and this 
was regarded as an unpardonable sin. 

The Queen became sovereign of India. It was not, 
however, until some eighteen years later that Her 
Majesty was proclaimed Empress of India. On the 
assumption of that title very decided differences of 
opinion were expressed in Parliament and by the 
public press. The Queen was regarded as the most 
august representative of hereditary monarchy in the 
world. One opponent of the proposal said: ^^I 
would rather be the oldest Queen than the youngest 
Empress." Pledges were given by the Conservative 
Ministry that the use of the title of Empress was to 
be strictly confined to India, that it was not to be 

*See lAfe of Macaulay hy Sir George Trevelyan, 



CRIMEAN WAR: INDIAN MUTINY. 129 

used in the United Kingdom nor in the British 
colonies. 

In India itself the Imperial title had a beneficial 
effect on the natives. The East India Company 
ruling as a trading corporation was quite beyond the 
understanding of both Mussulmans and Hindoos. It 
was to them a mysterious Power coming from beyond 
the sea. But they could realise the existence of their 
^'Good Mother/' so far away, even though she were 
never likely to be seen by them. Her Majesty by 
being proclaimed Empress of India, was not, as 
was superciliously suggested by some advisers of the 
policy, placed on a level with Continental Emperors. 
As ruler on the principles of British constitutional 
freedom over our growing colonies and over so many 
millions of Indians, the Queen occupies a much higher 
and prouder position. 

Though in India, Imperialism was fostered by the 
title of Empress, British constitutional freedom began 
to have an influence on the higher classes of the 
natives. The writings of three great British authors 
became widely known, and awoke a world of new ideas 
and aspirations. These authors are Shakespeare, Mil- 
ton, and Burke, whom Indians place in the same high 
category.* It has been said that it is the sword 
which governs and must govern India. In more 
recent years efforts have been made, especially by Lord 
Eipon, to combine with the sword something which 
at least has a semblance of representative government. 
That the experiment has been successful can perhaps 

*Of this I was informed by a very distinguished Indian 
official very soon after his return from the East. He is now 
a member of the House of Commons. See Lord Dufferin's 

/Speec/ies. 



130 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

scarcely be said. Lord Dufferin on succeeding Lord 
Kipon inherited difficulties which other Viceroys had 
not had to encounter: but so far from blaming his 
predecessor he paid a graceful and eloquent tribute 
to his merits. It is a noteworthy coincidence that 
one of the first things with which Lord DufFerin had 
to deal, was an Indian land problem not very dis- 
similar to that to -which he had long given so much 
thought in Ireland. 

The British Empire in India is greatly envied. 
There have been recent difficulties with the tribes on 
the I^orth Western frontiers. But it may be said 
that British rule in India is more secure, and that our 
administration is better than ever before. The 
native Princes are more attached to British rule than 
they ever were. They are quite well aware that 
they have nothing to gain, but much to lose by ex- 
changing the rule of the Empress of India for an 
Imperial Master coming from the far ISTorth. This 
is the actual situation as the nineteenth century closes 
and the new century begins. It may seem as hope- 
less to speak of political progress in India as in 
China. But as the years roll on, it will be found 
that the great civilised communities of the West will 
exert a powerful influence for good over the Eastern 
masses under their control, and will succeed in 
carrying out those principles of justice and liberty, 
which are the foundations of human progress. 



THE UNITED STATES: IRELAND. 131 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE UNITED STATES! IRELAND. 

Not long after the East India Company was abol- 
ished the ISForth American Republic was distracted 
by a momentous civil war. A short time before, the 
American Commodore Tatnall had assisted the Eng- 
lish in an engagement with the Chinese on the river 
Pei-Ho, remarking significantly that ^^Blood is 
thicker than water." This expression of sympathy 
was much commented upon at the time: it struck a 
chord of feeling which had seemed latent ever since 
the War of Independence, but is so no longer. The 
steady development of good feeling between Great 
Britain and the United States may be regarded as one 
of the best signs of political progress. The English 
Slave Trade is stated to have been begun by Sir John 
Hawkins, who in 1562 procured negroes on the coast 
of Africa and took them for sale to the West Indies. 
Eourteen years before the eighteenth century ended, a 
hundred and thirty British ships were stated to have 
conveyed not fewer than forty-two thousand negroes 
away from the country of their birth for sale as slaves. 
At the time of the Declaration of Independence 
slavery existed in the American Colonies. ITotwith- 
standing the statement in the celebrated Massachu- 
setts' Bill of Rights, and the decision of the Supreme 
Court at Boston on the declaration that ^^AU men are 
born free and equal," slavery continued to exist in the 



132 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Southern States. The question merged itself into one 
of State Rights. On the details of the American Civil 
War it is not necessary to enter. The struggle between 
the Northern and Southern States was regarded by 
many people as one between Freedom and Slavery. 
Looked at in this light it had of course the sympathies 
of those who felt strongly on this question as one of 
morality and religion. To this feeling among the 
English speaking races the appearance of Mrs. Beecher 
Stowe's celebrated book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," power- 
fully contributed. To the unjust taunt of some Eng- 
lish critics that she was a land of slavery, America 
might very properly have retorted that the British 
themselves had been the greatest slave traders, that 
they had begun the immoral traffic, and bequeathed it 
to their descendants in the New World. The great 
extension of the cotton manufacture in the South had, 
of course, done much to render slavery there a 
domestic institution. 

Looked at in the abstract, however, it did seem 
strange that States voluntarily united together by the 
equal and common bond of Republican brotherhood, 
should be held in the Union by force of arms. In 
this proceeding, as could scarcely be denied, there 
appeared something very illogical. But political 
questions are seldom decided by logic. They deal 
with the interests and the passions of mankind. 

The war extended over an enormous area. From 
a military point of view it w^as not especially interest- 
ing: the soldiers and the generals had to be formed, 
or, it may be said, extemporised. 

The North affected great indignation when the 
British Government issued a proclamation of neutral- 
ity. This was represented as a recognition of the 



THE UNITED STATES: IRELAND. 133 

South as a belligerent Power. It is not easy to see 
how any other course could have been taken by 
British Ministers. The Southern States could scarce- 
ly be called rebellious subjects of a ruling Power. 
I^orth and South stood on the common ground of a 
Republic, in which the various States were supposed 
to have independent and equal rights. 

The British people, and the British colonists, took 
the greatest interest in this gigantic civil war of the 
Anglo-Saxon race on the ^orth American continent. 
Large numbers of people espoused the cause of the 
South, as fighting for their own rights, whatever 
might become of the slaves. 

The most remarkable opinion expressed on the sub- 
ject was, during the second year of the war, uttered 
by Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
Those who are only familiar with the last years of his 
life would naturally suppose that all Mr. Gladstone's 
sympathies^Vould have been with the I^orthern States, 
and the freedom of the slaves. But his father. Sir 
John Gladstone, had owned a plantation in Demerara, 
and his son, in his maiden speech in the House of 
Commons, had strongly maintained that Parliament 
had established slavery, and that if it were abolished 
its owners were entitled to compensation from Parlia- 
ment. This was Mr. Gladstone's attitude, in the first 
session of the Keformed Parliament, on June 3rd, 
1833. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the 7tli 
of October, 1862, speaking at l!^ewcastle, he said: 
"We may have our own opinions about slavery, we 
may be for or against the South, but there is no doubt 
I think about this: Jefferson Davis and the other 
leaders of the South have made an army: they are 
making, it appears, a navy: and they have made, 



134 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

gentlemen, wliat is more than either, they have made 
a nation." The separation of the ISTorth and South he 
declared to be as certain as any event future or con- 
tingent could be. This statement, so confidently 
made, was an unfortunate one. Foresight, or what 
Lord Beaconsfield loved to call prescience, could not 
be justly attributed to Mr. Gladstone. He had many 
rare gifts: but that was certainly not one of them. 
Five years afterwards, he had to acknowledge that on 
the result of the American civil war he had been very 
much mistaken. "I must confess," he said, "that I 
was wrong: that I took too much upon myself in ex- 
pressing such an opinion. Yet the motive was not 
bad." 

The I^orth triumphed over the South, slavery was 
abolished, and peace restored in the great Republic. 
Had it been otherwise, many people will doubt 
whether the results would have been as favourable to 
political progress as what actually ensued. The ques- 
tion is one on which differences of opinion are 
still entertained. But there can be none respecting 
the rapidity with which the country recovered from 
the effects of the tremendous civil war. 

During the course of the war some important ques- 
tions respecting neutrality arose between the United 
Kingdom and the Northern States. Under the cir- 
cumstances they were almost inevitable. The escape 
of the "Alabama" from the Mersey the day before 
the British Government had ordered her detention, 
was not a creditable proceeding, and the depredations 
she committed on Northern shipping continued to be 
a subject of contention between the governments of 
the United States and of the United Kingdom long 
after the American civil war had ended. For the 



THE UNITED STATES: IRELAND. 135 

actual damages done by the "Alabama/' and ber two 
sister vessels tbe "Florida'^ and "Shenandoah" the 
amount claimed was more than three millions and a 
quarter; while the amount claimed for all damages 
direct and indirect was nine millions and nearly a 
half. 

After many futile negotiations between the two 
governments, a treaty was signed at Washington, on 
May 8th, 18Y1. By the treaty a Board of Arbitra- 
tion was established to settle the differences between 
the United States and Great Britain. The tribunal 
of arbitration, which sat at Geneva, held that the 
indirect claims, which must be stigmatised as unjust 
and ridiculous, did not constitute a valid ground for 
compensation. But it was unanimously decided that 
Great Britain was liable for the acts committed by the 
"Alabama," "having failed by omission to fulfil" the 
duties prescribed by the Washington Treaty, which 
affirmed the principle of "responsibility for depreda- 
tions where the government had not exercised the 
utmost diligence and caution to prevent the fitting-out 
of privateers." With regard to the "Florida," all the 
arbitrators, except Sir Alexander Cockburn, found 
against Great Britain; and three out of the five, held 
that she was also liable for the acts of the "Shenan- 
doah." The damages awarded to the United States 
amounted to £3,229,166. 

The award of the tribunal of arbitration, which was 
made in September, 1872, gave rise to much dis- 
cussion. The decision was based on the admission of 
a new ex post facto principle of International Law, 
which many regarded with disapproval. But it was 
argued with more reason, that the principle estab- 
lished was of paramount importance to Great Britain 



136 POLIT'ICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

as the most powerful of maritime States, possessing 
the largest amount of property upon the seas. The 
security obtained for British shipping in the future 
was thought to be worth even the very large sum 
ordered to be paid under the award, w^hich was 
certainly a liberal one. When all the substantiated 
claims were satisfied there remained a large surplus, 
which it was contended really belonged to the British 
tax-payers. But the satisfactory settlement of the 
differences between the United States and Great 
Britain was well worth the cost, and though the people 
whose pockets were injuriously affected may have been 
of another opinion at the time, there is no doubt that 
to-day the establishment of the great principle of 
arbitration between the two countries, is considered by 
the majority of the British nation as distinctly an 
advance in political progress. 

The indirect effects of the American civil war on 
Great Britain and Ireland were serious, and pro- 
longed. They can scarcely be said to have even yet 
passed away. A number of American Irish took part 
on both sides. Of those who enrolled themselves in 
the army of the I^orth, some had taken part in the 
Young Ireland movement in their native country, and 
had been tried, con\dcted, and punished for treasona- 
ble conduct. This, of course, did not render them 
more attached to the United Kingdom. Professedly 
devoted to the cause of separation at home, they saw 
no inconsistency in taking up arms in America for 
the cause of the Union as represented by the ITorth, 
against the cause of Disunion as represented by the 
South. It has been said of Irishmen, justly or un- 
justly, that they always fight better abroad than at 
home, for the cause of others than for their own. 



THE UNITED STATES: IRELAND. I37 

However that may be, when the civil war was over 
the Irish Americans found their military occupation 
gone. To it they had become more or less habituated, 
and pined for action. They turned their attention 
both to Canada and Ireland. The Fenian raids on 
Canada were easily repelled, and were little better 
than ludicrous failures. Times were greatly changed 
since the Papineau rebellion some thirty years 
previously. The mass of the Canadians had become 
thoroughly loyal. Thirty-three thousand men were 
under arms, and the Fenians on the suspension of the 
Habeas Corpus Act were only too glad to have the 
opportunity of saving themselves by retreating across 
the frontier. 

In Ireland the Fenian organisation was believed to 
be very extensive. It was composed for the most part 
of the humbler and more ignorant classes south of the 
Boyne. At the close of the civil war the American 
Fenians announced that officers were going to Ireland 
to organise an army of two hundred thousand men. 
This was more easily said than done. The Fenian 
army, about which so much was said, never made its 
appearance in Ireland. A Fenian provisional gov- 
ernment was, indeed, established in 'New York: but 
a Fenian government, like a Fenian army, was one 
thing in New York, and a very different thing in 
Dublin or Cork. It is remarkable that a number of 
Fenians went over from Grlasgow to Ireland to 
organise an insurrection in Belfast. This I learned 
from a Catholic resident magistrate, and from a 
well-known editor of an Irish l^ational journal 
published in that progressive town. One night when 
an outbreak was anticipated, the resident magistrate 
came to The Northern Whig office, and said to me as 



138 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

the Editor : "You are quite unprotected here. Shall 
we send you up a force?" My reply was: "Pro- 
tected, or unprotected, we do not want a force. It 
shall not be said that we are afraid." But even in 
Belfast there was great tension on the official nerves. 
The police looked upon every stranger as a Fenian. 
When such was the feeling in Belfast, where any 
attempted outbreak could have been easily put down, 
and where the Fenians would have been hopelessly 
outnumbered, it is easy to imagine what was the state 
of the rest of the country. 

The resident magistrate above mentioned, was Mr. 
O'Donnell, who owing to his efficiency had been sent 
to Belfast after the first serious riots. Tie owned a 
small estate near Kilmallock, where he often stated 
everything was perfectly safe. As a fact, however, 
a number of Fenians attacked the police barracks 
there, but were driven off with loss by some fourteen 
of the constabulary. This at least was serious fight- 
ing. On the 6th of March, 1867, a proclamation of 
an Irish Republic was sent for publication in English 
and Irish newspapers. The very next day there was a 
rising at Tallaght, near Dublin : but the police repelled 
the attack without the least difficulty, and the Fenians, 
composed of the lowest classes in Dublin, ran vigorous- 
ly homeward anxious to shield themselves in the slums 
of the capital. At Drogheda a thousand armed men 
sought to take possession of the market place: but the 
appearance of the police was enough. It is difficult to 
account for such conduct, which it must be admitted 
was the reverse of heroic. 

To enter into further details of the Fenian dis- 
turbances is unnecessary. The promise of the es- 
caped Fenian leader, James Stephens, that before the 



THE UNITED STATES: IRELAND. I39 

end of a year he would have thousands of Fenians 
fighting in Ireland against British troops was never 
redeemed. There was much apparent activity in 
America: but in Ireland the movement gradually 
settled down. In England there was a show of de- 
termination. Two Fenians on their way to prison 
were rescued, and a sergeant shot in the police van. 
For that crime three men, Allen, Gould, and Larkin, 
were hanged at Salford, and were called the ^'Man- 
chester martyrs.'^ The Clerkenwell explosion, which 
followed soon after the murder of Sergeant Brett, 
was the most serious of all the crimes committed in 
the name of the Fenians. The prison wall was blown 
down: and the loss of life and injury inflicted on a 
large number of innocent people, were appalling. Six 
persons were killed outright by the explosion: many 
others directly or indirectly died from the effects: a 
hundred and twenty persons were wounded, fifteen 
being permanently injured: forty mothers were pre- 
maturely confined, twenty of their infants died, and 
others were afflicted for life. 

This explosion had important political conse- 
quences, not obvious to many ordinary people. 
According to Mr. Gladstone it induced him to recon- 
sider his Irish policy, and to undertake the disestab- 
lishment of the Irish State Church, which he had de- 
clared some years before to be outside the range of 
practical politics. Several years before the great 
crime at Clerkenwell was committed, Mr. Gladstone 
had begun to turn his attention to Ireland as especial- 
ly worthy of his reforming energies. The question 
of the disestablishment of the Irish Church, which had 
slept a long sleep from the days of the well-known 
Appropriation Clause, had been unexpectedly raised 



140 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

in the House of Commons during the absence of tlie 
Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. Mr. Gladstone 
who had been so earnest a defender of Church and 
State, seized the opportunity to deliver an emphatic 
speech, in which the policy of disestablishment in 
Ireland Avas unequivocally foreshadowed. The speech 
delighted the Irish Liberal or Catholic members. 
''Now,'' said Mr. Maguire, "we have a leader." Yes ! 
A leader had been obtained for an Irish policy which 
was to carry Mr. Gladstone very far indeed along the 
path which he convinced himself, and the great ma- 
jority of professed Liberal representatives, was the 
most direct way of political progress, leading as they 
felt convinced to the peace and unity of the Empire. 
IIow far indeed the blowing down of prison walls and 
the murder of many innocent people could justly be 
said to promote the disestablishment of the State 
Church in Ireland, or any other political reform, is a 
question which readers must decide for themselves. 
Mr. Gladstone, in a speech delivered at Dalkeith in 
^N'ovember of 1879, said: "When it came to this, that 
a great jail in the heart of the metropolis was broken 
open under circumstances which drew the attention of 
the English people to the state of Ireland, and when 
in Manchester policemen were murdered in the execu- 
tion of their duty, almost the whole' country became 
alive to Irish questions, and the questions of the Irish 
Church re^dved. It came within the range of practical 
politics." If we are to accept so high an authority, 
political progress is advanced by the most unlikely 
methods. 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. 141 



CHAPTER X. 



FEANCE AND GEEMANY. 



On the death of Lord Palmerston Mr. Gladstone 
became leader of the House of Commons. He ap- 
peared in this position when Parliament met early in 
the year 1866. Lord John Russell, now Earl Russell, 
was Prime Minister, but Mr. Gladstone at once ap- 
peared to be the moving spirit of the administration. 
Lord Palmerston had not been a reformer. His 
Government had been moderate and conciliatory to all 
classes. But the thorough going Liberals had become 
impatient at what they represented to be a policy of 
standing still/ and Mr. Gladstone and Earl Russell 
were inclined to show that they were animated by a 
more politically progressive spirit. 

The question of Reform was revived. At the be- 
ginning of the year the controversy on this policy 
was carried on with much energy : but one great fact 
was overlooked by Mr. Gladstone, who was perhaps 
not indisposed to place his nominal chief Earl Rus- 
sell at a disadvantage. The new House of Commons 
had not been chosen on the Reform question, which 
at the dissolution was not before the constituencies. 
The Government majority in the House was a Pal- 
merstonian majority, elected to support the old and 
still popular leader. To attempt to pass a Reform 
Bill during the first session of a new parliament is 
always a hazardous proceeding, even under more 



142 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

favourable circumstances tlian existed in 1866. 
Members who had had to pay somewhat dearly for 
their seats, felt no desire to support a measure which 
might send them back to the constituencies almost 
before they had become familiar with their duties. 
In the course of the discussion on the Ministerial Bill 
Mr. Bright alluded to these circumstances in some- 
what reproachful terms. He reminded members 
that the elections had cost an enormous sum of 
money, — a consideration that undoubtedly caused 
even professed Liberals to view the Bill in a luke- 
warm if not a hostile spirit. Another objection to 
the Bill was that while it extended the franchise, it 
did not deal with the equally important question of a 
redistribution of seats. A Bedistribution Bill had 
afterAvards to be incorporated mth it: but this did 
not disarm the malcontents on both sides of the House 
of Commons. 

The most energetic opponent of the Bill was Mr. 
Robert Lowe, who was an eminent scholar, and had 
what few members of Parliament then possessed, con- 
siderable Australian experience. Mr. Lowe de- 
nounced the Bill as a descent to the level plain of 
democracy, in which large and small objects, an oak 
and a bramble bush, appear very much of the same 
size. He was cheered to the echo, and undoubtedly 
obtained a great success as an orator. 

The debate led to a split in the Liberal ranks. 
The opponents of the Beform Bill, some forty in 
number, headed by Mr. Lowe, Mr. Horsman, and 
Lord Elcho, were wittily termed "AduUamites'' by 
Mr. Bright, who compared them to the assembly in 
the Cave of Adullam, when David called about him 
every one that was in distress and every one that was 
discontented. The name stuck like a bur, and prob- 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. I43 

ably did as mucli as anything else to prevent further 
disaffection in the Government party. But the de- 
fection of the ^^Adullamites" sealed the fate of the 
Ministry, who after carrying their Bill by only ^Ye 
votes, were defeated on an amendment to one of the 
clauses, and resigned on the 26th of June. 

Mr. Gladstone's first experience as Leader of the 
House of Commons had not been a happy one. Dur- 
ing the fierce debate on the Reform Bill I forwarded 
Mr. Gladstone some articles which I had written on 
the subject in The Northern Whig. These he found 
time to acknowledge in a very gracious letter written 
in his own hand. This was my first communication 
from Mr. Gladstone in my editorial capacity: it was 
far from being the last. Some early associations 
aided me in approaching him, and I was always 
treated with the greatest courtesy, even while sup- 
porting views different from his own. 

In July, 1866, Lord Derby formed his third ad- 
ministration. During the autumn and winter which 
followed, the agitation for Reform was powerfully 
stimulated throughout the country, and when Parlia- 
ment met for the next session Mr. Disraeli stated that 
the Government had decided on dealing with the 
question by thirteen resolutions. This seemed a safe 
policy: but a fortnight afterwards it had to be given 
up. Then a six pound franchise for boroughs and a 
twenty pound franchise for counties were proposed 
by the Ministers, a measure which was called the Ten 
Minutes Bill, because, according to Sir John Paking- 
ton, it had been agreed to in ten minutes by the 
Cabinet Council. This had also to be withdrawn, 
and a new measure was introduced by Mr. Disraeli 
giving a household and lodger franchise in boroughs, 
though it retained a property qualification in coun- 



144 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ties. This might be considered remarkable political 
progress on the part of the members of a Conserva- 
tive government, who had declared the measure of 
their predecessors a dangerous concession to democ- 
racy. Household suffrage in the boroughs became 
law, and a new era may be said to have begun. The 
change as Lord Derby admitted was a great experi- 
ment, a '' leap in the dark," which, however, had the 
recommendation to its supporters of ^^ dishing the 
Whigs." 

In February, 1868, Lord Derby retired through 
ill health and Mr. Disraeli became Prime Minister 
for the first time. His tenure of office was precar- 
ious, and only lasted a few months. During the 
session Mr. Gladstone in emphatic terms declared 
for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church, which 
had been united with the English at the time of 
the Union, and proposed a series of resolutions 
Avhich were carried against the Government. An 
appeal to the country followed. From this time 
Mr. Gladstone may be said to have devoted his best 
energies to an Irish policy of which Disestablishment, 
the Land Acts, and ultimately Irish Home Rule, 
were the successive steps which carried both himself 
and the large majority of his followers further than 
any of them intended to go, when, in the ISTovember 
of 1868, a new Parliament was returned with a large 
Liberal majority. When we look back, indeed, at 
the policy inaugurated by Mr. Gladstone in 1868, and 
developed with ever increasing surprises during so 
many years, we may be pardoned saying in well 
known words : ^' Where we are we know ; where we 
are going. Heaven alone knows ! " 

While Mr. Gladstone was carrying out his Irish 
reforms events were maturing which suddenly altered 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. I45 

the face of Europe. For some years Prussia had 
been steadily working to bring about the constitution 
of a ITorth German Empire. She may be said to 
have torn the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein from 
Denmark. Austria had had to abandon her position 
as head, in more than a nominal sense, of the Grer- 
manic Confederation. In the war that followed 
Austria was defeated, and the complicated struggle 
resulted in the establishment of unity in E'orth Ger- 
many, with a new Parliament at Berlin. The vari- 
ous German States appeared to have awakened from 
a long sleep. Count Bismarck, ^^Junker'' Bismarck 
as he was called, had taken the lead in these im- 
portant movements, which secured the victory of 
Prussia, and the formation of a powerful Kingdom 
destined to exercise vast influence over the progress 
of the world. In carrying out the great scheme of 
the unification of Germany, Bismarck had no regard 
for constitutional freedom. To political progress, 
in the ordinary sense, he could never be considered 
favourable. He would have said, as Mr. Disraeli 
once did, ^ ^Progress ! Progress to what ?" 

Count Bismarck had realised his dreams, and had 
established a claim to a place among the first states- 
men of his time. The keystone of his success lay 
in carrying out the high monarchical ideas of the 
Prussian sovereigns, especially of King William who 
became the first Emperor of Germany. The King 
of Hanover found that his hereditary rights were as 
dust in the balance, when weighed against the iron 
will of Bismarck bent on making Prussia supreme in 
North Germany. 

It is strange that the Emperor of the French 
should at first have encouraged schemes which 
could not be compatible with the interests of 
10 



146 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

France, whose policy ought to have been to try to 
keep Germany divided. But while war was being 
waged by Prussia against Hanover, Saxony, and 
x\ustria, the French Emperor endeavoured to con- 
clude a secret treaty with Bismarck, recognising the 
acquisitions which Prussia had made, and pledging 
France not to oppose a federal union of the Northern 
and Southern German States. The treaty was never 
concluded, and we can well believe was never seri- 
ously entertained by Bismarck. By one of the 
clauses the King of Prussia undertook to facilitate 
the acquisition of Luxemburg by France. This was 
a possession much coveted by Louis l^apoleon, and in 
the following year he tried to purchase it from the 
King of Holland. But the proposal was strongly 
resented by Prussia. The province had formed part 
of the dissolved Germanic Confederation, and was 
of far too great strategic value to allow of its being 
transferred to France. The dispute was referred to 
a Conference of representatives of the Great Powers, 
who agreed upon the neutrality of the province, the 
withdrawal of the Prussian garrison, to whose pres- 
ence the French Emperor had objected, and the de- 
struction of the important fortifications. But the 
decision pleased neither of the contending parties, 
and the action of France rankled in the mind of Bis- 
marck, who recognised in the feverish energies of the 
Emperor a grooving danger to the interests of Ger- 
many. 

In June, 1870, Isabella II abdicated the throne of 
Spain, and Prince Leopold of Hohenzollem Sigmar- 
ingen, a brother of Prince Charles of Roumania, and 
connected with the Prussian dynasty, was nominated 
King, and accepted by the Spanish Regent and Minis- 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. 147 

try. A week later, owing to the strenuous opposition 
of France, he resigned the position. The antago- 
nistic feeling against Germany was strong in France, 
and was fostered by the Emperor and his ministers 
to divert the growing discontent and disaffection 
which threatened to endanger the second Empire. 
Confident in the efficiency of his army, Louis E^apo- 
leon found in the refusal of the Prussian Govern- 
ment to give a guarantee that the claims of Prince 
Leopold would not again be put forward in Spain, 
a pretext for a war, which he hoped would restore 
the waning popularity of his rule. The Empress, 
herself a Spaniard, felt much indignation at a Ger- 
man Prince having been put forward as the candi- 
date for the Spanish throne, and is credited with hav- 
ing exerted her influence to bring about the war, 
from which she was to be one of the chief and long- 
est sufferers. 

To Bismarck war was undoubtedly welcome. In 
it he saw the means by which to accomplish the work 
of uniting Germany in a great Empire. A success- 
ful war on a large scale was needed to raise the heat 
of national feeling to the point of fusion. If any- 
thing could have intensified German patriotism it 
would have been the aggressive and arrogant tone 
of the French, who boasted that they would cross 
the Hhine, and enter Berlin almost before their 
enemies could strike a blow in self-defence. By 
adroit diplomacy Bismarck succeeded in making it 
appear that the French Emperor was entirely the 
aggressor, and, as it now well known, employed un- 
scrupulous and somewhat discreditable means to at- 
tain this end. But Louis !N^apoleon was an easy and 
ready dupe. He spared no efforts to precipitate the 



148 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

conflict, and was justly reproached with making war 
like a conspirator. His policy was supported by 
large majorities in the French Chambers, and the 
protest entered by M. Thiers and a few others against 
the unseemly haste to shed blood, was half-hearted 
and ineffectual. An interval of less than a fort- 
night intervened between the announcement of the 
nomination of Prince Leopold to the Spanish throne, 
and the declaration of war by the Emperor, on the 
15th of July, 1870. Though Louis ^N'apoleon after- 
wards endeavoured to disavow responsibility for the 
war, into which he declared he had been forced by 
public opinion, there is now no doubt that war was 
premeditated both by the Emperor and by Bismarck, 
and that each for his own ends laboured to bring 
about one of the greatest national crimes of modern 
times. 

It is not necessary to recapitulate the incidents of 
the war. The Emperor had been assured that every- 
thing was ready for the momentous contest: but it 
was soon found that the French army was lamentably 
deficient in transport and equipment, and inferior in 
numbers: while every day revealed more clearly the 
efficiency, the perfect organisation, the mobility of 
the German forces. The results for which Bismarck 
had worked were accomplished. Prussia was sup- 
ported not only by the North German Parliament, 
but by the Southern States, and all Germany was in 
arms to support a united German nationality. The 
change was sudden and astounding; the political con- 
sequences could scarcely be overestimated. Count 
von Moltke, who commanded under the King of Prus- 
sia, had carefully matured his plans. In his address 
to the army the Emperor had spoken of the French 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. I49 

soldiers advancing to tlie old battle-grounds in Ger- 
many. But the campaign had scarcely begun when 
France instead of being the intruder was the invaded, 
and the contest was waged on French soil. Step by 
step the French had to retreat. The struggle was 
short but terrible, and showed at once the solidity of 
German strength, and the hoUowness of imperial 
power in France. 

On the 1st of September, little more than six 
weeks from the beginning of the war, the battle of 
Sedan was fought, and the following day the place 
capitulated. The Emperor surrendered to the King 
of Prussia, and the Second French Empire fell. 
Surrender was the only course possible, for Louis 
Napoleon knew that he could not return to Paris. 
An eminent diplomatist said : "This after all was the 
best thing he could do. In taking this step his mind 
appeared to have recovered a part of its former 
strength. He had for some time appeared to be in 
a state of mental degeneracy.'' 

The French Emperor had shown himself to be a 
most unfortunate politician. Many years before, he 
had gone to war with Austria to free Italy from "the 
Alps to the Adriatic." After the defeat of the 
Austrians at SoKerino, the pledge given to Italy was 
violated, and peace concluded at Villa Franca. He 
encouraged the establishment of the ^North German 
Federation, only to find it turned against himself; 
and by the war which he provoked, he played directly 
into the hands of his enemies, and brought about a 
united German Empire. 

Some sixteen days after the great defeat and sur- 
render, I visited Sedan. Very few Englishmen had 
then entered the gates since the town had been taken 



150 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

possession of by the victorious Germans. The two 
regular armies were advancing on Paris, and Sedan 
was held by the Landwehr, or Militia. They seemed 
plain citizens, dressed in a dark and unpretentious 
uniform, engaged in what they evidently considered 
a serious duty. The Emperor's cherished mitrail- 
leuses, which were to surprise the Prussians and give' 
him an assured victory, had all been captured, and 
filled the great square of Sedan. I paid a visit to 
the Caserne d' Aspeld, occupied by the Anglo-Ameri- 
can Ambulance Corps, of which my friend Sir Wil- 
liam MacCormac, now the distinguished President 
of the Royal College of Surgeons, was the English 
chief. He showed me several wounded lying on 
beds, saying of one ^^This man mil die," and of an- 
other, ^'Tliis man will recover." His face was 
keenly scrutinised by his patients, as he thus whis- 
pered his opinion of what might be expected in 
each particular case. A Erench colonel to whom 
he had given great attention hailed him as ^'Mon 
SauveurJ^ I was asked to dine with the Medical 
Staff, being told that I could now expect some 
proper diet, but that had I come a week earlier I 
should have had to content myself with horse and 
water. But it was added that I should have to leave 
the table early, because after a fixed hour anyone 
who appeared outside the doors of the Caserne might 
expect to become the mark for a Prussian sentry. 
Under the circumstances I declined the honour. 

The scene all round was tremendous. The dead 
had, indeed, been buried, and many swords belonging 
to them had been placed upon their graves. But the 
ground was still covered with the bodies of dead 
horses. The wounded filled the churches. The 
sisters of mercy were going from tent to tent. The 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. 151 

village of Bersailles which the Bavarians had taken 
by storm after crossing the river was a mere ruin, 
the altar of the church broken to pieces, and the edi- 
fice itself without a roof. 

A revolution had occurred in Paris and a Re- 
public been proclaimed. As soon as the news of 
the decisive battle of Sedan was known, the French 
troops which still remained in Rome were withdrawn, 
and the Italian forces, after a very slight resis- 
tance, entered the ancient capital of the world. The 
Pope refused the conciliatory offers made to him 
by King Victor-Emmanuel, and became virtually 
a prisoner in the Vatican. His temporal Govern- 
ment was at an end, the Papal Territories were add- 
ed to the Kingdom, and the Unity of Italy after 
many vicissitudes became a great fact. At Ver- 
sailles the King of Prussia was elected Emperor 
of Germany by the assembled Princes: and though 
France made many gallant attempts to retrieve her 
fortunes they were without avail, and Paris was 
forced to surrender. By the Treaty of Peace in 
1871 Alsace and Lorraine had to be ceded to the 
victors, and an enormous pecuniary indemnity paid. 
These had, indeed, been stirring months, into which 
many great events were crowded. The aspect of 
Europe had undergone no small change. Germany 
had been consolidated, France crushed and two prov- 
inces wrested from her, the Second Empire over- 
thrown, a Republic erected in its place, Italy united, 
the temporal power of the Pope destroyed, and 
Rome created the capital of Victor-Emmanuel's king- 
dom. 

During the progress of the Franco-German War, 
Russia seized the opportunity to repudiate the article 
of the Treaty of Paris guaranteeing the neutrality 



152 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

of tlie Black Sea. Her desire to free herself from 
the obligations imposed upon her at the conclusion 
of the Crimean War was natural, but the manner in 
which she announced her decision was ominous and 
offensive. It showed an utter disregard of moral 
right, and a contempt for international engagements 
which nothing could justify. By the Treaty of Paris 
both Turkey and Kussia undertook not to maintain 
military or maritime arsenals on the shores of the 
Black Sea, of which the waters and ports, ^'thrown 
open to the mercantile marine of every nation," 
were ^'formally and in perpetuity interdicted to the 
flag of war, either of the Powers possessing its coasts 
or of any other Power." We may doubt whether the 
Western Powders acted wisely in imposing these con- 
ditions upon Pussia, who might naturally claim a 
right over the waters tliat washed her Southern 
shores. But having signed the Treaty of Paris she 
could not legitimately repudiate any part of it with- 
out the consent of the other Powers. That consent 
was not asked. At a moment when she knew the 
Treaty could not be enforced, and that there was no 
possibility of an alliance being formed against her, 
Russia suddenly declared that she would no longer 
be bound by the article restricting her rights in the 
Black Sea. The precedent was an evil one, and 
was a serious set back in political progress. To extri- 
cate the Western Powers from the humiliating posi- 
tion in which they had been placed. Prince Bismarck 
suggested that a conference should be held in Lon- 
don to discuss the question raised by the Russian 
Government. With the assent of the British Minis- 
try this was done, Earl Granville diplomatically as- 
suming that the Conference was to assemble "with- 
out any foregone conclusion as to its results." This 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. I53 

polite fiction was kept up to the end, and in March, 
1871, a treaty was agreed to, abrogating the clause 
of the Treaty of Paris for the neutralisation of the 
Black Sea. How far the honour of the Western 
Powers was saved by thus doing formally what had 
already been done by Russia in an illegal and offen- 
sive manner, it would be difficult to determine. 
There may have been nothing better to do under 
the circumstances, but the transaction was not a 
pleasant one, and did much to discredit the value of 
international agreements. 

The new German Empire under the Emperor Wil- 
liam I., became a powerful and united state. But 
under the guidance of Bismarck, created a Prince and 
Chancellor of the Empire by his grateful sovereign, 
the course of events did not tend to what is deemed 
progress by those who believed in the civil, political, 
and religious liberty of the individual. With the 
cause of constitutional freedom Bismarck had no 
sympathy. On more than one occasion he declared 
that Germany was not to be governed on British 
methods. Erom the establishment of the Empire 
till the present time there has been a struggle for 
supremacy in Germany between the Crown and the 
Parliament. Hitherto the Crown has maintained its 
ground, but it has only been able to do so by many 
arbitrary and oppressive acts. During the nineteen 
years Bismarck remained at the head of affairs Ger- 
many made vast strides in material progress, and 
attained a foremost position among the nations of 
the world. But though the iron rule of the Chancel- 
lor was borne with patience by the majority of the 
people, it met with strenuous opposition from many 
quarters, and produced results which even German 
statesmen could not regard with equanimity. 



154: POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

In 1872 the number of vonng men who emigrated 
to avoid conscription was so large that the movement 
was forbidden by the Government. The order wag 
one that conld only be enforced to a limited degree, 
and was not of a character calculated to conciliate 
•public feeling. The steady increase of the army 
was accompanied by severely repressive measures 
against the press and freedom of speech; and the 
burden of taxation pressed heavily upon the masses, 
among whom the democratic spirit continued to grow. 
Between 1879 and 1884 the emigration increased 
fivefold, and there were many signs of gathering dis- 
content, which found expression in socialistic agita- 
tion, attempts upon the life of the Emperor, and 
treasonable plots. 

But if little political progress was made during 
these years by GeiTQany, her growth in other re- 
spects was amazing. In spite of emigration the popu- 
lation has increased by leaps and bounds, rising from 
forty-one millions in 1871 to over forty-nine and a 
half millions in 1890. The growth of population 
is rightly held to be an index of the prosperity of a 
State, and viewed in this light Imi')erial Germany 
presents a striking contrast to Bepublican France, 
where the increase has been merely nominal. The 
commercial expansion of Germany has also been 
enormous, and in arts and manufactures she has 
largely displaced her rivals in the markets of the 
world. Adaptability and thoroughness of workman- 
ship have had much to do in bringing about this suc- 
cess, which has been fairly earned, and is likely not 
only to be maintained but increased at the expense 
of less enterprising nations. But the qualities that 
have obtained superiority in German products and 
manufactures are the direct result of a thorough and 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. I55 

practical system of education, by which the German 
in every walk of life is equipped to compete success- 
fully against foreign rivals. ]^o other nation has 
realized so fully that knowledge is power, or has suc- 
ceeded to the same extent in bringing public instruc- 
tion to bear upon the practical needs and occupations 
of the people. 

In March, 1887, the Triple Alliance between Ger- 
many, Austria, and Italy, which had been proposed 
and partly agreed to five years before, was signed. 
Of an offensive and defensive character it bound to- 
gether three powerful states in a league which un- 
doubtedly did much for the maintenance of peace, 
and therefore for the cause of progress. It had an- 
other important result. Left out in the cold, France 
and Russia were naturally drawn into closer relations, 
from which the unsettled Republic hoped to gain 
advantages which must have been regarded with 
cynical amusement at St. Petersburgh. But though 
we may doubt whether any alliance of material bene- 
fit to either nation is possible between two govern-- 
ments so radically different in constitution and tem- 
perament, France and Russia are not likely to forget 
the lesson of the Triple Alliance, and the friendly 
relations established between Paris and St. Peters- 
burgh are still maintained, and sedulously cultivated 
by the French people. The Triple Alliance which 
would have expired in 1892 was renewed for a fur- 
ther term of six years, and was further strengthened 
by a series of commercial treaties between the three 
Powers. 

William I, "the great Emperor who founded Ger- 
many's unity," to quote the words of Prince Bis- 
marck, died in March, 1888. The Crown Prince 
Frederick had already been smitten by a fatal dis- 



156 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ease, and after a reign of less tlian three months suc- 
cumbed to cancer of the larynx. He was succeeded 
by his son the present Emperor William II, who is 
to-day undoubtedly the most striking personality in 
Europe. Under his rule the struggle between the 
Cro^vTi and the Parliament has not diminished, 
though it is conducted witli less acrimony than dur- 
ing the years that Bismarck was at the head of the 
Government. The vigour, audacity, and personal 
ascendency of the Emperor have proved irresistible, 
and have given a great impetus to German trade and 
commerce. If the country had not enjoyed a period 
of remarkable prosperity, it is a question whether 
the rule of the Emperor would have been attended 
by the great success which has marked its progress. 
Between the imperial pretensions of the Emperor, 
who claims to rule by "Divine Right," and publicly 
denoimces opponents of his political policy, and the 
limitations of a monarchy established to govern under 
a Parliament elected by manhood suffrage, there is 
a wide gulf, which it might have been thought even 
the daring genius of William II could not have 
bridged over. Had the Emperor faltered at the 
outset, had he ever shown signs of weakness or 
hesitancy, the experiment of ruling on the lines he 
has pursued would have failed. But his energy and 
firm belief in his divine mission have carried him 
through, and enabled him to mould the people to his 
will. In their Emperor the Germans recognise the 
embodiment of national ambition, and material pro- 
gress. He has made the army even more effective 
and powerful than he found it : he has created a Ger- 
man mercantile marine : he has thrown over the chil- 
ling doctrine of Bismarck that Germany does not 
want colonies, that the Empire is complete and has 



FRANCE AND GERMANY. 157 

nothing to desire, and has replaced it by a glowing 
policy, admirably calculated to take captive the popu- 
lar imagination, of a world-wide German Empire, 
protected by a powerful navy, and bound together by 
commercial ties of colossal magnitude. It must not, 
however, be assumed that the Germans view the 
anomalies of their present political system with indif- 
ference. Patience may be recognised as one of their 
great virtues. At present they have little to gain 
and perhaps much to lose by defying the Emperor. 
The proverb that everything comes to those who 
wait, may in their case be found to huve a very perti- 
nent application. But there can be no doubt that 
in time the political instincts of the race will assert 
themselves, and that Germany will emerge from a 
state of political bondage into the freedom that can 
alone be secured by a constitutional government that 
draws its inspiration from the people. 



158 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTEK XI. 

THE GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 

Events on the Continent did not deter Mr. Glad- 
stone from undertaking the reforms at home which 
he believed demanded immediate attention. In the 
Parliament which assembled at the close of 1868 the 
Liberals had a very large majority. Reform was in 
the air, and the new Ministry set about its task with 
extraordinary energy. The first question dealt with 
was the disestablishment and partial disendowment of 
the Irish Church, on which Mr. Gladstone had turned 
the late Government out of ofiice. Few measures 
have ever excited more bitter feeling, or called down 
upon British statesmen more vehement denuncia- 
tions. Led by Mr. Disraeli the Opposition fought the 
Bill with undaunted courage, though it was evident 
from the first that in face of the commanding ma- 
jority supporting Mr. Gladstone resistance was futile. 
The will of the representative chamber was so strongly 
expressed that the House of Lords did not feel justified 
in throwing out the measure, which therefore passed 
into law. 

In one of his electioneering speeches Mr. Gladstone 
had declared that ^'the Irish upas-tree" had three great 
branches; the State Church, the Land Tenure System, 
and the System of Education. Compared with these 
all other reforms appeared to him of secondary impor- 



GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 159 

tance. The first session of Parliament had been de- 
voted to the Church question, and in 1870 Mr. Glad- 
stone introduced the Irish Land Bill, by which 
tenants were given a certain property or partnership 
in the farms they tilled. The measure was to a con- 
siderable extent based upon what was known as the 
Ulster custom of the three F's, — Fair Kents, Free 
Sale, and Fixity of Tenure. It was not regarded as 
complete, and in subsequent years had to be supple- 
mented by a series of other laws to deal with the 
highly complicated and artificial conditions it created. 
Opinion is still divided as to whether the revolution- 
ary principle embodied in the Bill was a wise one. 
But apart from this it may be admitted that the Irish 
Land System was a most unsatisfactory one, and 
called for drastic treatment in some form. In Parli- 
ament the Bill was not strongly opposed, and in due 
course secured the Royal Assent. In dealing with the 
third branch of his upas-tree Mr. Gladstone found 
more difficulty. His Irish University Bill satisfied 
nobody, and displeased almost everyone. The diffi- 
culty was to satisfy the friends of non-sectarian 
education and the supporters of denominational edu- 
cation. Mr. Gladstone in 1873 sought to effect a 
compromise between these two conflicting principles, 
but without success, and his Bill was rejected by a 
small majority. Though nearly a generation has 
elapsed since that time the question still remains to 
be solved, and the difficulties by which it is sur- 
rounded are so great as to make any government hesi- 
tate before undertaking the task with which even Mr. 
Gladstone was unable to cope successfully. 

Though opinions may differ upon the Irish meas- 
ures brought forAvard at this time by Mr. Gladstone, 
there can be no doubt that other and not less impor- 



160 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

tant reforms effected by the Liberal Ministry are now 
regarded with unanimous favour. The Elementary 
Education Act, the Ballot Act, the abolition of the 
purchase system in the Army, the University Tests 
Act, the Licensing Act, and the Judicature Act, were 
all measures of the first importance, and contributed 
very largely to political progress. 

The neglect of education for the masses of the 
people had long been a discredit to Great Britain. 
On this question of vital importance she was behind 
every other civilised country. Until the memorable 
year of 1870 the State had done little or nothing for 
primary education, and even the small sums doled 
out by Parliament were applied in ways best calcu- 
lated to effect the least good. For 'centuries the 
governing classes had been accustomed to look upon 
education as an excellent thing for the rich and a 
very bad thing for the poor. The old feudal feel- 
ing of the necessity of keeping people in their ^^place," 
was very strong, and has by no means died out even 
at the close of the century. Through the efforts first 
of enlightened individuals, and afterwards of all the 
chief religious bodies, a considerable number of 
schools were established for the benefit of poor chil- 
dren. The movement continued to spread, but it 
carried with it the stigma of charity, and the educa- 
tion given was of a pitifully meagre character. Little 
or nothing was taught beyond the "three Rs.'' read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic, and the doctrines of 
religion. In seeking to assist the poor their masters 
wished to do nothing which would enable anyone to 
"break his birth's invidious bar," nothing which would 
enable the masses to encroach upon the rights and 
privileges of the classes. That the work accomplished 



GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 1^1 

by the sectarian and non-sectarian voluntary schools 
prior to 1870 was of extreme value, and deserves grate- 
ful remembrance, we would be the last to deny. Had 
it not been for these efforts the poor would have been 
steeped to the lips in ignorance. But the system of 
education by charitable effort was fundamentally 
wrong, and was incompatible with the sense of inde- 
pendence which should animate the individual mem- 
bers of a great nation. 

With the extension of the franchise, and the 
broadening of political progress, new ideas sprang 
up. Reference has already been made to the 
increase of the Parliamentary grant to education 
in 1846. The chief objects of the proposals in 
that year were to improve the qualifications of 
teachers, and to place all existing agencies deserv- 
ing of help from the State on a footing of equality. 
There had been much alarm among ITonconformists 
lest schools supported by the Church of England 
should obtain unfair advantages from the State. This 
was now set at rest, and no departure has ever been 
attempted from the wise policy then inaugurated. To 
Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth is also due the evolution 
of the principle that the fullest freedom possible 
should be given to each locality to manage its own 
educational affairs; the State merely giving grants 
in aid upon compliance with well defined conditions. 
In 1856 an important step was taken by the forma- 
tion of the Education Department, charged with the 
care of elementary instruction, and the development 
of Science and Art, and by the creation of the office 
of Vice-President of the Committee of the Privy 
Council on Education, a clumsy title under which the 
chief Minister of Education, responsible to Parlia- 
11 



IQ2 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ment for the expenditure of all grants of public 
money, still continues to be disguised. In 1861 a 
revised code of regulations was issued by Mr. Lowe. 
Under the new Code all grants were to be made in 
future to managers, and direct relation between 
teachers and the Department ceased. Government 
Inspectors of all State-aided schools were appointed; 
six standards of efficiency in "the three K's'^ were 
created; and the evil principle of payment by results, 
was established. But the spirit in Avhich the subject 
of national education was still regarded, may be gath- 
ered from the remark of Mr. Lowe, who in proposing 
his measure in the House of Commons, said: "I 
do not promise that the system shall be economical, or 
that it will prove efficient. But if it is not efficient it 
wdll be economical ; and if it is not economical it will 
certainly be efficient." Mr. Lowe was not mistaken. 
His Revised Code proved to be both economical and 
inefficient. 

Up to this time the British Government had con- 
fined its efforts to giving a small amount of State- 
aid to secular or denominational schools founded and 
maintained by the efforts of private individuals or 
voluntary bodies. 'No attempt had been made to 
supply schools where the voluntary system did not 
meet the needs of the community, and more than 
two-thirds of the children throughout the country 
w^ere absolutely without any opportunity of instruc- 
tion. This deplorable state of things was transformed 
by the Elementary Education Bill passed by Mr. W. 
E. Eorster in 1870. The measure laid the founda- 
tion of a system of national education, and must be 
considered a very important step in political progress. 
The new Act provided for the establishment in Eng- 




THE RIGHT HON W. E. GI^ADSTONE- 



13 



GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 163 

land and Wales of popularly elected School Boards 
in every district where the number of existing schools 
was inadequate, with powers to levy local rates, to 
build and maintain schools, to frame bye-laws, to 
compel the attendance of all children between the 
ages of ^VG and twelve, and, where the needs of the 
population rendered it absolutely necessary, to pro- 
vide free instruction for the children of parents unable 
to pay any fees. Distinctive religious instruction was 
forbidden in all Board Schools, and in existing Volun- 
tary Schools the rights of parents were safeguarded by 
the enforcement of a conscience-clause, enabling any 
child to be withdrawn from all religious teaching. 
Subject to this and other moderate provisions regard- 
ing efficiency and inspection, the existing schools 
under the charge of religious or other bodies, con- 
tinued to be recognised by the State, and were granted 
by comparison with what had gone before a generous 
amount of public support. Important changes were 
also made in the number of subjects of instruction, 
which have since repeatedly been increased. The 
measure aroused no small amount of opposition. The 
majority of nonconformists were strongly in favour 
of a strictly secular system of national elementary 
education. By an even larger section of the com- 
munity education divorced from definite religious in- 
struction was considered an unmixed evil. This view 
was shared by many Nonconformists, and was general- 
ly accepted by members of the Church of England 
and by Roman Catholics. But in spite of much 
angry controversy the Bill was carried, and may now 
be regarded as having embodied a wise compromise 
in dealing with a very difficult and complicated posi- 
tion. It dealt a most effective blow to the narrow and 



164: POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

selfish idea that educational advantages should be 
kept in the hands of the privileged classes, and that it 
was unwise to afford the poor facilities for rising above 
the depressing circumstances of the rank in which 
they were born. In the energies it stimulated, the 
closely barred doors it flung open, the sense of inde- 
pendence and self-respect it created, the higher in- 
telligence and interest in the rights and duties of 
citizenship it fostered, the Elementary Education Act 
is the most momentous, wide-reaching, and perpetual- 
ly beneficial measure passed in England during the 
century. 

The session of 1871 was scarcely a less important 
one in the history of political progress. By the Uni- 
versity Test Act the ancient Universities were thrown 
open to all students without distinction as to creed, 
and one more step was achieved in the long struggle 
of the IN'onconformists for religious equality. It is 
difficult now to understand the distrust and dislike 
with which less than a generation ago the proposal to 
substitute the Ballot for the old system of open vot- 
ing at election, was viewed. But, like all abuses, the 
public nomination and election of candidates for 
Parliament and Municipal bodies, died hard. Its 
supporters believed that there was something unmanly 
and un-English in the Ballot ; that its adoption would 
give rise to many evils, and sap the independence of 
public life. In \dew of what Mr. Forster's Ballot Act 
accomplished it is amazing that such reactionary ideas 
should have prevailed up to the last. The progress 
of the measure was resisted with great determination 
in the House of Commons, where the Bill was secret- 
ly disliked by many of Mr. Gladstone's supporters, 
and openly denounced by the Conservatives. Re- 



GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 1^5 

jected by the Lords the Bill was reintroduced the 
following session and finally added to the Statute 
Book. Few measures have worked a greater change 
in British political life. Before its adoption, bribery, 
corruption, impersonation, drunkenness, and rioting 
were inseparable features of every election. Anything 
more brutal, more demoralising, and more calculated 
to arouse the worst passions of political parties, than 
the older system of conducting elections, it would 
be difficult to imagine. A very large number of 
those to whom the franchise had been extended were 
prevented from exercising the trust committed to 
them in accordance with their conscientious convic- 
tions. The tenant went to the poll in fear of his 
landlord, the workmen of his employer, the trades- 
men of his customers. ^^Yote early and vote often'' 
was advice given by electioneering agents in all 
earnestness. The venal elector sold his vote to the 
highest bidder, and often ^^sold" the buyer. Huge 
sums were spent at every contest, and effected the 
ruin of candidates and the destruction of political 
morality. Between such a state of things and the 
condition brought about by the adoption of the ballot, 
there is one of the most striking contrasts of recent 
times, l^either the ballot, nor the laws afterwards 
passed against bribery and corruption, have secured 
absolute purity in the electoral system. Human in- 
genuity cannot devise restrictions which human de- 
pravity cannot evade. But the ballot put an end to 
the wholesale corruption which formerly existed, and 
secured freedom of action for every man who desired 
to exercise his rights as a citizen in accordance with 
the dictates of his conscience. 

In 1870, the advantages of open competition for 



166 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

filling nearly all positions in the Ci\dl Service, were 
formally recognised by an Order in Council. The 
following year Mi*. Gladstone undertook the abolition 
of the purchase system for Officers' Commissions in 
the Army, and the substitution for it of admission 
by competitive examination and promotion according 
to merit. The purchase system had existed for 
several centuries. It had been prohibited by AVilliam 
III, but was legally recognised in 1Y02, and some 
years later regulations were issued and a fixed scale 
of prices established. An officer bought his way into 
the army and purchased his promotion step by step. 
Only in the case of a vacancy arising by the death of a 
senior officer, could a poor man, whatever might be 
his merits, secure advancement without payment. As 
the number of men desirous of entering the Service 
increased, commissions were enhanced in value, and 
the scale fixed by law was entirely ignored. The 
command of the Army was therefore almost ex- 
clusively in the hands of the richer classes. Xo poor 
man however great liis ability could obtain entrance 
to that charmed circle, except by the patronage of 
the wealthy. This anomalous system Mr. Gladstone 
determined to sweep away. Mr. Cardwell, the Min- 
ister of ^ar, introduced into the House of Commons 
an important Bill dealing with the e^dl, and embody- 
ing a scheme for the reconstruction of the Army. 
The measure was bitterly opposed, and eventually the 
more complicated clauses dealing with army re- 
organization had to be abandoned. In its reduced 
form the Bill only dealt with the abolition of the 
purchase system. It was passed after a protracted 
struggle by the Commons, but was rejected by the 
House of Lords, on the plea that the Peers were un- 



GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 167 

willing to agree to the proposal until a complete 
scheme of army reorganization was before them. 
There are probably few persons who will not now 
admit that the reform was a very necessary and 
important one. But whatever were the evils of the 
system to be abolished they had existed for genera- 
tions, and could very well have been tolerated for 
another year. There was nothing in the circum- 
stances to warrant or excuse the proceeding adopted 
by the Prime Minister. Mr. Gladstone was ill-fitted 
to brook opposition from any quarter, least of all 
from the House of Lords, whose existence he never 
hesitated to threaten whenever its decisions came in 
conflict with his imperious will. To defeat the 
Peers seemed to him an end worthy of any sacrifice ; 
even the sacrifice of the great constitutional prin- 
ciples for which he professed so deep an attachment. 
The system of purchase in the army had been 
created and existed solely by Royal Warrant. When 
the Lords threw out his Bill, Mr. Gladstone took the 
audacious and unprecedented step of advising the 
Queeii to cancel the Poyal Warrant which made pur- 
chase legal. The Government were victorious, the 
Lords defeated, the system of purchase in the Army 
was abolished. But great and desirable as was the 
reform, it may be thought that Mr. Gladstone bought 
his victory at too high a price. His action was un- 
doubtedly legal ; it was unquestionably unjustifiable. 
It stands out alone as the only instance in modern 
times of a Minister abusing the prerogative of the 
Crown to over-ride the decision of Parliament. It 
is one of Mr. Gladstone's acts which shook the con- 
fidence of many of his supporters, and would most 
gladly be forgotten by his most staunch admirers. 



168 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

Much had been done to promote political progress, 
but as must always be the case the Ministry in carry- 
ing out a series of important reforms had created 
for itself many enemies, and aroused the opposition of 
many powerful interests. There was scarcely a sec- 
tion of the Liberal Party throughout the country that 
had not been irritated or alienated. In Ireland the 
Disestablishment of the Church had aroused the 
antagonism of many Protestant Liberals, and the 
Land Act had alienated large numbers of Mr. Glad- 
stone's supporters, while failing to conciliate the 
Nationalists. The Noncomformists as a body had 
been offended by the granting of public money in aid 
of sectarian education under Mr. Forster's Act, while 
the creation of the Secular Board Schools had 
wounded the convictions of many religious people of 
all denominations. By the privileged classes the 
abolition of purchase in the Army was regarded as an 
encroachment upon their rights, and the manner in 
which the reform had been carried was strongly con- 
demned by independent Liberals. These and other 
causes had sown dissension in the Liberal ranks, and 
had shaken the confidence of the Ministry in itself. 
The spirits of the leaders were damped, and the ad- 
ministration no longer possessed the cohesion and 
energy which had enabled it repeatedly to triumph 
over all obstacles. 

As the enthusiasm for reform died away Mr. Glad- 
stone lost his hold upon the sympathies of the mass of 
the nation. He was not a conciliatory leader. The 
intensity of his own convictions swept all before it. 
Few of his colleagues were fully taken into his con- 
fidence ; and the supporters over whom he exercised so 
remarkable an influence, were repeatedly surprised by 



GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 169 

the policy suddenly sprung upon them. By Mr. Dis- 
raeli the members of the Government were compared 
to "a range of extinct volcanoes.'' Their energies 
were spent, and the work of the greatest reforming 
administration of modern times was done. 

Throughout the country a reactionary spirit had 
unmistakably set in. The cause of Conservatism was 
in the ascendant, and the energy and brilliancy with 
which Mr. Disraeli carried on his attacks put new life 
and hope into the Opposition. In the debate that led 
to the defeat of the Irish University Education Bill 
Mr. Disraeli taunted the Government with having mis- 
taken "the clamour of the ^N^onconformists for the 
voice of the nation.'' "You have now had four years 
of it," he said. "You have despoiled churches. You 
have threatened every corporation, and every endow- 
ment in the country. You have examined into every- 
body's affairs. You have criticised every profession, 
and vexed every trade. 'No one is certain of his prop- 
erty and nobody knows what duties he may have to 
perform to-morrow. I believe that the people of this 
country have had enough of the policy of confisca- 
tion." The same charges, in even more exaggerated 
language were reiterated by Mr. Disraeli in a letter to 
Lord Grey de Wilton published in the Autumn, the 
leader of the Opposition adding that the country had 
"made up its mind to close this career of plundering 
and blundering." 

On the defeat of the University Bill Mr. Glad- 
stone's Government resigned. Mr. Disraeli was 
sent for to form another administration: but wisely 
declined to undertake the task under the existing 
conditions in the House of Commons, where his party 
were in a minority. The Queen had to request Mr. 



170 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Gladstone to retain office, which he did wdth much 
reluctance. His administration, which had carried 
so many measures of reform, had received its death 
blow; and the blow was all the more bitter from the 
fact that it had been inflicted by professed friends. 
Various changes were made in the Ministry. Mr. 
Gladstone became Chancellor of the Exchequer as 
well as First Lord of the Treasury; Mr. Lowe was 
transferred to the Home Office, and Mr. Bright joined 
the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
There were other changes of less importance. But 
the rearrangement of the Ministry did not revive 
public confidence. The bye-elections showed that the 
tide of public feeling had turned against the Govern- 
ment, and in January, 1874, without waiting for the 
meeting of Parliament, which had been summoned to 
assemble within a few days, Mr. Gladstone suddenly 
decided to appeal to the country. A dissolution was 
not expected. It took the Liberals and many of Mr. 
Gladstone's own colleagues by surprise, and proved an 
unpopular and disastrous step. AVhen the elections 
were over the Conservatives were found to have a ma- 
jority of over fifty, and the great Liberal Administra- 
tion was extinguished. 

During the last years of Mr. Gladstone's Govern- 
ment a new and very important movement, destined 
to exercise far reaching influence upon political 
events, had sprung up in Ireland. According to Mr. 
Justin McCarthy the Home Rule organisation was at 
first mainly inspired by Irish Protestants. ^^The 
Disestablishment of the Church had filled most of the 
Protestants of Ireland with hatred of Mr. Gladstone, 
and distrust of the Imperial Parliament and English 
parties. It was therefore thought by some of them 



GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 171 

that the time had come when Irishmen of all sects 
and parties had better trust to themselves and to their 
united efforts than to any English minister, parlia- 
ment, or party. Partly in a petulant mood, partly in 
despondency, partly out of genuine patriotic impulse, 
some of the Irish Protestants set going the movement 
for Home Rule. But although the actual movement 
came into being in that way, the desire for a native 
parliament had always lived among large classes of 
the Irish people." Irishmen of moderate views "wel- 
comed the Home Rule movement, and conscientiously 
believed that it would open the way to a genuine 
reconciliation between England and Ireland on condi- 
tions of fair co-partnership The leader- 
ship of the new party came almost as a matter of 
course into the hands of Mr. Butt, who returned to 
Parliament after a considerable time of exile from 
political life. Mr. Butt was a man of great ability, 
legal knowledge, and historical culture. He had 
begun life as a Conservative and as an opponent of 

O'Connell There was not then in Irish 

politics any man who could pretend to be his rival. 
He was a speaker at once powerful and plausible; he 
had a thorough knowledge of the constitutional his- 
tory, and the technical procedures of Parliament, and 
he could talk to an Irish monster meeting with vivacity 
and energy.''"^ Mr. McCarthy perhaps over-rates 
the amount of Protestant support which the Home 
Rule movement received in the early days of its exist- 
ence. Mr. Butt was, it is true, a Protestant, and the 
son of an Irish Protestant clergyman, and his name 
and ability attracted a number of his co-religionists to 

*Justin McCarthy's A History of our own TimeSf Vol. II 
pp. 397-8. 



172 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

the standard of Home Rule. But the Home Rule 
League founded by Mr. Butt in 1872 differed very 
materially from the movement of later years. From 
the first Mr. Butt was opposed by the more extreme 
and violent section of his party. His refusal to enter 
on the path of unconstitutional agitation soon dimin- 
ished his authority as a leader, and when he died in 
1879 he had practically ceased to control a movement 
which was being promoted by methods he had repeat- 
edly condemned. 

The early days of the new Parliament, with Mr. 
Disraeli as Prime Minister, were in marked contrast 
to the strenuous and stormy time that had preceded 
them. What Sir Wilfred Lawson called an "almost 
holy calm" prevailed. Circumstances seemed to smile 
upon the Conservative Ministry, and to frown upon 
the defeated and dejected Liberals. The Ashantee 
War was brought to a speedy and successful conclusion 
by Sir Garnet Wolseley; the famine in India was 
checked; and the financial year ended with a surplus 
of some six millions. These were desirable legacies 
bequeathed to the Government by their predecessors 
in Office, but they added not a little to the credit 
of the Conservative Administration. 

From the opening of the session Mr. Gladstone ap- 
peared ill at ease as leader of the Opposition. He 
seemed to share the dejection of his party. There 
was no question of sufficient national interest to arouse 
his energies and excite his enthusiasm. As he had 
dissolved Parliament in a moment of petulance, so he 
now suddenly announced his intention of retiring 
from the leadership of his party. In a letter to Lord 
Granville he stated that he "could not contemplate 
an unlimited extension of active political service," 



GOLDEN DAYS OF LIBERALISM. 173 

and that it might, for a variety of reasons personal to 
himself, be necessary to divest himself of "all respon- 
sibilities of leadership at no distant time." He added 
that during that session he could not give "more than 
an occasional attendance in the House of Commons." 
The announcement was received with dismay by the 
Liberals. Mr Gladstone had been their recognised 
leader for scarcely ten years, but he had dominated 
the party so completely by his strong personality and 
commanding talents, that it did not seem possible to 
do without his inspiring guidance. 

At this time a visit to Ireland of Mr. Disraeli had 
been much talked of, and largely commented upon in 
the Irish Press. Respecting it Mr. Macknight wrote 
several articles, which he sent to Mr. Gladstone, who 
acknowledged them in the following letter: 

Hawarden Castle, Chester. 

October 2nd. 1874. 
Dear Mr. Macknight, 

I am very much obliged to you for calling my atten- 
tion to the able articles in The Northern Whig. 

I will say nothing of their much too indulgent refer- 
ence to myself. Perhaps I ought to be equally 
reticent on their criticisms of Mr. Disraeli's visit to 
Ireland, and of the mode in which it has been treated 
by large portions of the Press. But I cannot with- 
hold the expression of my warm sympathy with a 
powerful, and what is more a manful, protest against 
imposture. This is the stuff of which sound and 
healthy political parties are made: such diet is much 
needed: and is good for us all. Believe me, 
Very faithfully yours, 

W. E. Gladstone. 



174 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE "unspeakable" TURK. 



The calm which marked the first years of the 
Parliament under the leadership of Mr. Disraeli was 
destined to be of short duration, and to be succeeded 
by events which excited extraordinary feeling not 
only in Great Britain, but throughout the civilised 
world. Though it might sink out of sight for a time 
the Eastern Question still ^ existed, and time only 
seemed to render it more difficult and complicated. 
Twenty years had passed since the end of the Crimean 
War. During that time a very moderate effort on 
the part of Turkey would have enabled her to carry 
out many of the reforms she had promised to effect. 
But nothing was done. The Porte fell back upon its 
old policy of impassive defiance. By an astute combi- 
nation of submission and obstinacy, of professions of 
reform, and callous indifference to every pledge 
undertaken, by skilfully playing upon the mutual 
jealousies of the Christian Powers opposed to her, 
Turkey had eluded her obligations, and set the allied 
Powers of Europe at defiance. The Sultan had been 
solemnly warned that unless the reforms promised in 
1856 were carried out the integrity of the Ottoman 
Empire would be endangered. But the warning 
passed unheeded, because the Sultan believed that if 
Eussia invaded Turkey her action would be resisted 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 175 

by Great Britain, and possibly by other Powers. 
The Crimean War and the Treaty of 1856, which 
it was hoped had settled the Eastern Question, and 
secured some measure of freedom for the oppressed 
subjects of Turkey, accomplished neither object. 
The results were entirely of a negative character. 
Great Britain had made great sacrifices to attain 
definite objects, and those objects were as far from 
realisation as ever. Russian aggression, it is true, 
had been checked for a time; but the material con- 
cessions wrung from the Tzar were gradually being 
regained, and in the end it may be said that Russia 
recovered everything she had previously lost, and that 
we lost every substantial benefit for which we had 
fought. That we had done practically nothing by 
the Treaty of 1856 to secure the protection of the 
Christian subjects of the Sultan is abundantly evident. 
Within a year of the signature of the Treaty our 
Consul in Bosnia felt impelled to report upon the 
abuses in that province. In forwarding this consular 
report to our Ambassador at Constantinople, Lord 
Clarendon said, ^^Her Majesty^s Government know by 
experience the utter inutility of appealing on such 
matters to the Porte; but the Turkish Government 
should be made aware that if this systematic mis- 
government, and persecution of Christians, and viola- 
tion of engagements continue, it will be impossible to 
arrest the progress of the opinion which is now mani- 
festing itself, that Mohammedan rule is incompatible 
with civilisation and humanity, and can no longer be 
endured.^' But neither protests nor threats moved 
the Sultan, who had long grown accustomed to hard 
words, and felt confident that his Christian advisers 



176 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

were too jealous of each other to render it possible for 
them to put their threats into action. 

The reports of British Diplomatic and Consular 
agents in Turkey, between 1856 and 1874, are filled 
with details of the misery and degradation of the 
Christian populations. In his report upon the condi- 
tion of the people in Bosnia and Herzegovina our 
Consul, Mr. Holmes, stated that the lower grades of 
Turkish officials had no means of living except by 
extortion, ^Svhile the Porte seemed knowingly to en- 
courage the oppressions by which they really live." 
"The rapacity or corruption of the governing classes 
keep the country in a state of penury and misery; no 
advance seems to be made in prosperity, education, or 
civilisation." In the course of an able report upon 
the state of Koordistan in 1869, Consul Taylor de- 
scribing the hatred and contempt in which the Mos- 
lems held Christian inhabitants, said the latter dared 
not make complaints of ill usage. Should they do so, 
"sooner or later they would, both in person and prop- 
erty, suffer more, endure infinitely greater calamities 
than those they originally complained of." "The 
Christians, in addition to deprivation of property, daily 
jeopardise their lives, and what is more terrible, the 
honour of their females, in struggles for existence; 
trials from which the Moslems are exempt." Consul 
Zohrab stated that "fanaticism, cruelty, and dis- 
honesty, are the only incentives to action which move 
the men who are sent to administer this unhappy 
country." General Sir Fenwick Williams, whose 
valiant defence of Kars against the Russians was one 
of the remarkable military incidents of the Crimean 
War, describing the result of his personal observation 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 177 

of the condition of the territories around Erzeroum, 
wrote: "The whole body of cavasses, whether em- 
ployed as police in the capital and other cities and 
towns of the Empire, or in the provinces as the agents 
through whom the revenue is collected, constitutes 
an engine of tyranny perhaps unequalled in the world. 
'No language can portray the infamy which char- 
acterises the life and character of this body of 
men/'* 

This is only one side of the picture. There is a 
darker one represented by the Syrian Massacres, of 
which the details are as terrible as those associated 
with the Bulgarian atrocities. Captain Paynter of 
H. M. S. "Exmouth," in an official despatch, reported 
that he had succeeded in saving "from the horrors of 
famine, murder, and violation, upwards of 2,200 

Christian women and children The 

whole of those wounded were shot or sabred flying 
from the town after their husbands and male children 
had been slaughtered, "t In the deplorable scenes 
enacted all over the Lebanon, the Turkish soldiery 
appear to have been much more brutal than the 
Druses. Hundreds of men were put to the sword by 
the Druses, but generally speaking they did not ill- 
treat or slaughter women, or ruthlessly massacre chil- 
dren. These darker crimes were committed by the 
Turkish soldiery, whose excesses in Syria were en- 
couraged by the authorities. 

Between the time of the Treaty of Paris and the 
outbreak of the storm in Bulgaria, there had been a 
great development of national feeling throughout 

*Turhey, XVII, 1877, No. 6. p. 3. 

^Papers relating to Disturbances in Syria, June, 1860, p. 42, 
12 



178 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

Europe. This extension of national life had affected 
the people of the Balkan provinces almost as power- 
fully as the Italians. Russian influences also had 
been at work. It was not in the interests of Russian 
policy that the Christian races of the Balkans should 
remain quiet, and under the continued oppression of 
the Turks the populations were in a fever of unrest. 
Insurrections were invariably followed by massacres, 
and the corruption and extravagance of the last years 
of Abdul-Mejid stimulated the general discontent. 
Between 1861 and 18Y5 the Empire under Abdul- 
Aziz sank into an almost abject condition, by which 
the Balkan provinces profited to some extent. By a 
union between Moldavia and Wallachia the State of 
Roumania was formed, and in 1866 the united prin- 
cipalities expelled their ruler and chose Prince Charles 
of Hohenzollern in his stead. A determined rebellion 
in Crete lasted for nearly two years, and owing to 
the assistance afforded the insurgents by Greece, was 
suppressed with difficulty. In Servia, already auton- 
omous within her own boundaries, a desire for in- 
dependence was rapidly asserting itself. A demand 
in 1867 for the withdrawal of the Turkish garrisons 
which still held many Servian fortresses, proved ir- 
resistible, and the Sultan, whose feeble energies were 
fully occupied in Crete, reluctantly granted the con- 
cession. An insurrection in Herzegovina aroused 
excitement throughout Bosnia, Servia, and Monte- 
negro, and was stimulated by the financial embarrass- 
ments of the Porte, which in 1875 was compelled 
partly to repudiate its debts. Abdul-Aziz was de- 
posed, and committed suicide. He was succeeded by 
his nephew, the imbecile Murad V, who was speedily 
supplanted by his brother Abdul-Hamid II. Eor 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 179 

years the tension had been growing; it liad now 
become unbearable. The Slavonic populations were 
in revolt; the continued misrule and extravagant 
expenditure of the Sultans had alienated public 
opinion throughout Europe, and it seemed as though 
the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire really was at 
hand. ^^The sick man" of the Emperor Nicholas 
was still alive, but to many spectators the end appeared 
ominously near. 

Year after year in language not less urgent and 
emphatic than that employed by Lord Clarendon, 
British ministers continued to warn and menace 
Turkey, and always with the same result. The tor- 
rent of misrule continued unchecked. In 18Y3 Sir 
H. Elliot, our Ambassador at Constantinople, reported 
that the promised "nominal equality of Mussulmans 
and Christians before the law is now, in most pro- 
vinces, more illusory than it had been some years 
ago." There seemed to be an inherent incapacity for 
reform in the governing classes of Turkey. If 
massacre and oppression were accidental and transi- 
tory, if they were the result of a sudden outbreak of 
fanaticism, which, however deplorable, would cease 
when the paroxysm of passion had spent itself, we 
might have hoped that in time the wrongs of the 
people would be righted, and that relapses into 
savagery and bloodthirstiness would gradually become 
impossible. But that was not the case. What was 
done in Syria and in the Balkan provinces on occa- 
sions which so deeply moved the public mind, were 
only representations on a gigantic scale of what went 
on daily, monthly, and yearly on a small scale 
throughout the Turkish Empire. 

Two attempts had been made to bring the com- 



180 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

bined influence of the Powers to bear on Turkey. 
In December, 1.875, Count Andrassy bad drawn up 
on bebalf of Austria, Germany, and Kussia, a I^ote, 
in which it was declared that none of the reforms 
promised by the Porte had been carried out, and that 
if Servia and Montenegro were not to be dra^vn into 
insurrection, it was necessary for the great Powers to 
make clear ^^their firm resolution to arrest the move- 
ment" which threatened to involve the East. France 
and Italy joined with the three Emperors in the pre- 
sentation of the Xote of the Porte, and in demanding 
a written engagement that its provisions would be 
carried out. Lord Derby, after considerable delay, 
directed the British Ambassador at Constantinople 
to give the IsTote "a general support." Four out of 
the five demands made by the Powers were at once 
conceded by the Sultan, and an Imperial Irade was 
issued to give them effect. Six weeks later Sir Henry 
Elliot informed Lord Derby that "while the pro- 
fessions of the Government have been of a determina- 
tion to raise the administration of justice, its measures 
seem calculated to farther debase it." 

Although the British Government, who had joined 
in the Andrassy !N'ote with reluctance, might remain 
indifferent to the renewed perfidy of the Porte, the 
other Powers were not disposed to accept the frustra- 
tion of their plans. A conference of the representa- 
tives of the six Powers was convened at Berlin, and 
in May, 1876, a further remonstrance known as the 
Berlin Memorandum was drawn up. To this the 
British Cabinet felt unable to agree. The refusal of 
Great Britain to accept the Memorandum was received 
with dismay by the other Powers, and the action of 
Lord Derby in disclosing to the Porte the demands and 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 181 

menaces which it embodied, and in separating Eng- 
land from the other Powers, unquestionably en- 
couraged Turkey in her contemptuous indifference. 

In May, 1876, a revolt broke out in Bulgaria. It 
was never a formidable movement. Mr. Baring, who 
visited the district in July and drew up an official 
report for the British Government, states that the 
insurrection "v^as neither so formidable as the Turks 
in their first panic thought it was, nor so utterly in- 
significant'^ as many people made it out to be. ^'The 
insurgents put themselves in the wrong by killing 
defenceless Turks and committing other acts of 
insurrection, but the resistance they made when 
actually attacked was hardly worthy of the name.'' 
To stamp out the rebellion Azis Pasha who was in 
command of the disturbed district asked for four regi- 
ments of regular troops, but as these were not forth- 
coming, the Yali of Adrianople called on the Mussul- 
mans to arm. This action there is little doubt was 
taken with the approval of the Turkish Government. 
The volunteers consisted chiefly of the Circassians 
who by permission of the Porte had settled in the 
country in 1864. They were half -barbarous savages, 
who soon became the curse of Bulgaria. Accustomed 
for generations before they left Circassia to a per- 
petual warfare with the Cossacks, they had never 
settled down as cultivators of the land in Bulgaria, 
and were little more than brigands. From this for- 
eign element and other similar sources were drawn 
the irregular troops of the Sultan, the Bashi-Bazouks, 
or wearers of the red fez; and to bands of these men 
arms were distributed to enable them to put down the 
rising among the Bulgarians. The result was what 
might have been expected. The troops gained an 



182 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

easy victory, "and abused it most shamefully, the 
innocent being made to suffer for the guilty in a 
manner too horrible to think of." A fertile province 
was laid waste, fifty-four Bulgarian villages were de- 
stroyed, crowds of unarmed and inoffensive men, 
women, and children were massacred in cold blood. 
The total number of Bulgarians killed was 3,649, of 
whom 1,907 were women and children. Horrible 
tortures were in many instances inflicted, women were 
violated, and large numbers of girls and children 
carried off and sold as slaves. The detailed and 
accurate report of Mr. Stoney, forwarded by Mr. 
Layard to the British Foreign Office in 1877, shows 
that during the disturbances only forty-six Turkish 
men were killed, only six Turkish villages injured, 
while not a single Turkish woman or child was harmed 
by the insurgents. 

At the time of the atrocities and long afterwards 
the number of persons killed was hugely exaggerated. 
It was stated at every number from ten to forty thou- 
sand. Mr. Baring's estimate of the number of Chris- 
tians put to death was about twelve thousand; whilst 
he gave the number of Mussulmans killed at 163, of 
whom twelve were women. Mr. Stoney's figures 
are imquestionably the most reliable. But the precise 
number of innocent persons who perished matters very 
little. On this point Mr. Baring, whose fairness and 
capacity are admitted by all writers, has justly re- 
marked : "I have always considered the number of 
persons massacred had very little to do with the actual 
character of the atrocities, and whether 5,000 persons 
perished or 15,000, the sanguinary ferocity of those 
who suppressed the outbreak is not diminished. The 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 183 

Bashi-Bazouks killed everybody they could lay hands 
upon.* 

It is unnecessary to enter into the details of the 
Bulgarian atrocities, but a quotation from Mr. Bar- 
ing's description of the most appalling tragedy of 
the time, may be cited to show that the extreme action 
of Mr. Gladstone and other Englishmen was not with- 
out cause. It having been reported that some Mussul- 
mans had been killed in the town of Batak, and that 
the people had risen, Achmet Agha of Dospat was 
ordered by Azis Pasha to attack the place. On arriv- 
ing at the town Achmet called upon the inhabitants to 
give up their arms, and money, and solemnly swore 
that if they did so, "not a hair of their heads should 
be touched." But no sooner were these demands com- 
plied with than the Bashi-Bazouks set upon the people 
and slaughtered them like sheep. Of some 1,200 
persons who took refuge in the church hardly any 
escaped. "I visited this valley of the shadow of 
death,'' says Mr. Baring, "on the 31st of July, more 
than two months and a half after the massacre. In 
the streets at every step lay human remains. Just 
outside the village I counted more than sixty skulls 
in a little hollow. From the remains of female wear- 
ing apparel scattered about it is plain that many of 
the persons here massacred were women. It is to be 
feared also that some of the richer 'sdllagers were sub- 
jected to cruel tortures before being put to death. 
.... The intention was to exterminate all except 
those few girls (probably about eighty), whom they 
carried off to satisfy their lusts." 

*Turkey XV. 1877, p. 119. 



184 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

If the Bulgarian massacres were not perpetrated 
by the direct order of the Turkish Government, a 
point open to doubt, the Sultan and his advisers made 
no attempt to censure, much less punish, those responsi- 
ble for the outrages which had horrified the civilised 
world. Whilst expressing to the Ambassadors of the 
great Powers regret for what had occurred, the Sultan 
marked his approbation and appreciation of the con- 
duct of his officers by conferring upon them honours 
and distinctions. Achmet, Shefket, Azis Pashas, all 
who had ordered the cruelties, and had personally 
watched them being carried out, were rewarded, whilst 
those who had endeavored to protect the Christians 
from the fury of the Bashi-Bazouks, were passed over 
with contempt. In his "Lessons in Massacre,^' Mr. 
Gladstone says, "The lesson which the Turkish Gov- 
ernment has conveyed to its Mahomedan subjects by 
its conduct since last May in the matter of the Bul- 
garian rising, cannot be more pithily or more accu- 
rately expressed than in the three short English 
words, ^Do it again.' " 

There was a loud and growing demand in England 
that the Government should give some clear indica- 
tion of their policy. In its issue of July 15th, 1876, 
Punch drew the Premier as the silent impassive 
Sphinx, surrounded by an angry and menacing crowd, 
who with uplifted arms shouted "Speak!'' "Speak!" 
On the pre^dous day, Lord Derby, replying to a 
deputation at the Foreign Office had said: "Ko one 
is more strongly for non-intervention within all 
reasonable and practical limits than I have been and 
am, but we must push no doctrine to an extreme, and 
an absolute declaration of non-intervention under all 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 185 

circumstances is a declaration of international 
anarchy, and I need not tell you that international 
anarchy does not mean either international peace or 
progress If , as it has been said, the Turk- 
ish Empire is in a state of decay from internal causes 
— a question upon which I pronounce no opinion — it 
is clear that merely external assistance would be no 
remedy. The utmost that can be asked of us is to 
see fair play. We undertook undoubtedly twenty 
years ago to guarantee the sick man against murder, 
but we never undertook to guarantee him against 
suicide or sudden death." 

Mr. Disraeli a fortnight later stated in the House 
of Commons: ^*^We have said from the first that we 
were in favour of non-interference; that we should 
observe a strict neutrality, if that strict neutrality 

were observed by others We did not 

conceal from the House on a previous occasion that 
Her Majesty'^ Government hesitated much before 
they adopted the (Andrassy) l^ote. The reason why 
they hesitated was this: they were of opinion that 
the status quo in Turkey should, if possible, be main- 
tained. You will find it difficult to maintain the terri- 
torial integrity of Turkey without acknowledging the 

principle of the status quo We never 

concealed that we had in that part of the world great 
interests which we must protect and never relinquish, 
and it was no threat to any particular Power that we 
said at such a moment that the Mediterranean Meet, 
which is the guarantee and the symbol of our au- 
thority, should be there, that the world should know 
whatever might happen, there should be no great 
change in the distribution of territories in that part 



186 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

of the world without the knowledge and consent of 
England.''* 

The Turkish outrages in Bulgaria created a pro- 
found feeling throughout the Balkan provinces, and, 
stimulated by Russian intrigue, led to Servia and 
Montenegro declaring Avar against the Sultan early 
in July, 1876. The struggle was a short one, the 
result inevitable. Large numbers of Russian volun- 
teers, including many distinguished officers, flocked 
to the Servian ranks. Both Servians and Montene- 
grins fought with much gallantry, but they were no 
match in numbers for the Turkish troops, whose 
magnificent fighting qualities secured victory after 
victory for the Sultan, and finally drove back the 
insurgents into their own territory. A heavy defeat 
of the Servians at Saitscha on August 5th, rendered 
the invasion and conquest of Servia imminent. 
Public opinion was deeply moved in England. The 
details of the Bulgarian outrages had only recently 
become knoA\Ti, and there was a strong demand that 
something should be done to prevent a repetition of 
those horrors in Servia. In a despatch to Sir H. 
Elliot, the British Foreign Secretary, The Earl of 
Derby, instructed our Ambassador at Constantinople 
to urge strongly on the Sultan that "any repetition 
of the outrages committed in Bulgaria" would "prove 
more disastrous to the Porte than the loss of a battle. 
The indignation of Europe would become uncon- 
trollable, and interference in a sense hostile to Turkey 
would ine^dtably follow." 

This firm and decisive language by Lord Derby, 
undoubtedly had a good effect. By the end of August 

*Speech in the House of Commons July 31st, 1876. 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TtJEK. 187 

Servia had to beg the mediation of the great Powers, 
and the course of the victorious Turks was stayed by 
diplomacy. Futile negotiations followed. On Sep- 
tember 4th England supported by the other Powers 
proposed a formal armistice of not less than a month. 
To this the Porte objected, and by way of counter- 
offer announced a suspension of hostilities until Sep- 
tember 25th, and notified the terms upon which peace 
would be granted to Servia. But those terms were 
held to be inadmissible by the Powers, and were re- 
jected by Servia. On September 24th, the eve of the 
date for the resumption of hostilities, no terms having 
been agreed upon, the Porte proposed a continuance 
of the truce till October 2nd. Prince Milan on 
behalf of Servia rejected the proposal, and four days 
later the Servian troops attacked the Turks and the 
war was resumed. Meanwhile, Lord Derby had been 
pressing upon the Porte the acceptance of what after- 
wards became known as the "English Terms," which 
secured the adhesion of the great Powers. These 
proposals put briefly were : 

(1) The status quo, both as regards Bosnia and 
Montenegro. 

(2) That the Porte should simultaneously under- 
take, in a protocol to be signed with the repre- 
sentatives of the mediating Powers, to grant to Bosnia 
and Herzegovina administrative autonomy, a system 
of local institutions which would give the population 
some control over their own affairs, and guarantees 
against the exercise of arbitrary authority. There 
was to be no question of the creation of a tributary 
state. 

(3) Guarantees of a similar kind were also to be 



188 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

pro^dded against maladministration in Bulgaria, the 
details to be discussed later. 

These terms were rejected by the Porte, in spite of 
a warning from Sir Henry Elliot that war might ensue 
with Russia, and that England would observe a strict 
neutrality. 

The rejection of the English Terms was followed 
by proposals for coercion by Russia, which alarmed 
the British Cabinet, who again fell back upon a policy 
of isolation. Sir Henry Elliot was directed "to press 
upon the Porte" an '^armistice of not less than a 
month," and to state that in the event of a refusal he 
was to leave Constantinople. To this ultimatum the 
Sultan replied by a counter proposal of an armistice 
for six months, which was accepted by Lord Derby, 
but indignantly rejected by Russia as ruinous to Servia 
and Montenegro. 

It cannot be said that at this stage of the negotia- 
tions the British Ministry occupied a very dignified 
position. An ultimatum had been presented to 
the Sultan by the British Ambassador, and 
had been openly and impudently defied. In- 
stead of making good his words, and recalling Sir 
H. Elliot, Lord Derby had weakly accepted the 
counter proposal of the Porte, which would have in- 
flicted great hardship upon the insurgent provinces, 
and now refused to take any further part in the 
negotiations. The position was a humiliating one for 
England, and it appeared all the more so by contrast 
with the effect produced by the action of Russia a few 
days later. On the 29th of October, 1876, the Ser- 
^dans suffered a crushing defeat, and two days later 
the Russian Ambassador informed the Porte that if 
an armistice for six weeks were not accepted within 



THE ''UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 189 

forty-eight Lours, lie would leave Constantinople, and 
diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey would 
be broken off. What the British ultimatum failed 
to obtain, was instantly conceded to Eussia, and blood- 
shed was stopped. 

If the Porte had refused to give way, war with 
Russia would have followed, in which case the British 
Cabinet had determined not to interpose, unless in 
the development of events British interests were 
endangered. 

The Russian ultimatum, and renewed proposals 
made by the Tzar for the coercion of Turkey, 
aroused suspicion in England as to the real designs 
of Russia. To our Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, 
Lord Augustus Loftus, the Tzar, while explaining 
that if the Powers acting in concert did not check 
the growing disorders in Turkey, Russia was resolved 
to act alone, went on to pledge ^'his sacred word of 
honour, in the most solemn and earnest manner, that 
he had no intention of acquiring Constantinople, and 
that if necessity should oblige him to occupy a por- 
tion of Bulgaria it would only be provisionally, and 
until peace and safety of the Christian population 
were secured." These assurances were received with 
satisfaction, and a proposal for a European Confer- 
ence at Constantinople was made by Lord Derby, 
and accepted. The English Terms of peace which 
had been rejected by the Porte in September were 
to form the basis of this Conference, at which Great 
Britain was represented by Lord Salisbury. It was 
laid down as a preliminary condition that all the 
Powers should acknowledge the independence and 
integrity of Turkey, and should renounce any inten- 
tion of exclusive influence, or territorial aggrandise- 
ment, in the Ottoman Empire. 



190 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

The day after the announcement of Lord Salis- 
bury's appointment as the British Plenipotentiary at 
the Conference, the Prime Minister, who had been 
created Earl of Beaconsfield, speaking at the Guild- 
hall Banquet, explained that during the previous 
year the Government had sedulously pursued two 
objects, the first, the maintenance of the general 
peace of Europe; the second and subsidiary aim, the 
improvement of the condition of the Christian sub- 
jects of the Porte. But it was evident that the 
Ministry had had a third object before them, which 
they had regarded as more important than the avowed 
ones, and that was the preservation and integrity of 
the Turkish Empire. After reviewing the negotia- 
tions with the great Powers, the Prime Minister said: 
"Peace is especially an English policy. She is not 
an aggressive Power — for there is nothing which she 
desires. She covets no cities and no provinces. 
What she wishes is to maintain and to enjoy the 
unexampled Empire which she has built up, and 
which it is her pride to remember exists as much 
upon sympathy as upon force. But, although the 
policy of England is peace, there is no country so 
well prepared for war as our own. If she enters 
into conflict in a righteous cause — and I will not be- 
lieve that England will go to war except for a right- 
eous cause — if the contest is one which concerns her 
liberty, her independence, or her Empire, her re- 
sources, I feel, are inexhaustible. She is not a coun- 
try that, when she enters into a campaign, has to ask 
herself whether she can support a second or a third 
campaign. She enters into a campaign which she 
will not terminate till right is done."* 

♦Lord Beaconsfield at the Guildhall, Nov. 9th, 1876. 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 191 

This menacing speech undoubtedly produced most 
unfortunate effects both on the minds of the Tzar 
and the Sultan. Bj the Tzar it was regarded as un- 
warrantable in view of the assurances of mutual con- 
fidence that had just passed between himself and 
Lord Derby. In the words of the Prime Minister 
the Sultan saw encouragement to resist the demands 
of the combined Powers, with the certainty that if 
the worst came to the worst England would stand 
by him through jealousy of Russian aggrandisement. 
The following day the Tzar publicly declared that if 
the Constantinople Conference did not secure for 
the Christians of the East what right and justice de- 
manded, ^^Russia will be forced to take up arms, and 
I count on the support of my people.'' This declara- 
tion was followed by the mobilization of six army 
corps, which showed that the Tzar meant what he 
had said. Public opinion in England was now 
strongly in favour of coercing the Porte, if necessary, 
to carry out promised reforms. Mr. Cross — the 
Home Secretary — said "the time has come when what 
I must call the waste-paper currency — Turkish prom- 
ises — shall be paid in sterling coin." Sir Stafford 
ISTorthcote, Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking 
at Bristol, declared that unless the causes of insur- 
rection in the Balkan provinces were removed, any 
peace that was made would be a hollow and not a 
lasting one. 

The Constantinople Conference met in December, 
1876, and drew up a scheme, founded on the terms 
laid down by Lord Derby, for conferring administra- 
tive autonomy on Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria. 
It was presented to the representatives of the Sultan 
as the "irreducible minimum" which would be ac- 
cepted by Russia, and as "the common work of united 



192 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Europe.'' But from the opening of the "Full Con- 
ference," to which the Turkish Plenipotentiaries, 
headed by Safvet Pasha, were admitted for the first 
time, it was evident that the Porte had determined 
to resist the demands of the combined Powers. The 
"irreducible" report of the Conference was declared 
by the Turkish Plenipotentiaries to be an attack upon 
the independence of the Ottoman Empire, and a 
"Statement of Reasons" as to why such demands had 
been framed, was asked for. At this moment salvoes 
of artillery were heard. These, it was explained by 
Safvet Pasha, were fired in honour of the promulga- 
tion of a new Constitution for the Ottoman Empire. 
"A great act which is at this moment being accom- 
plished, has just changed a form of government 
which has lasted six hundred years. The Constitu- 
tion mth which his Majesty, the Sultan, has endowed 
his empire is promulgated. It inaugurates a new 
era for the happiness and welfare of his people." 
The brand new constitution which was launched at 
this critical moment, in this theatrical manner, was 
not, of course, worth the paper upon which it was 
w^ritten. 

Lord Salisbury at the meetings of the Conference, 
and in his interviews with the Sultan and the Grand 
Vizier, acted with firmness, moderation, and dignity. 
But his efforts on behalf of peace and reform were 
of no avail. The Porte knew that England would 
not resort to coercion, and believed that when it 
came to the point she would be forced to abandon a 
policy of non-intervention for one of active support 
of the Mohammedan Empire. As the Porte would 
not accept the scheme of the combined Powers, fur- 
ther meetings were held, and Russia's "irreducible 
minimum" was reduced. But the new proposals 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 193 

were rejected with equal firmness, and were declared 
to be "insulting," and involving "the mutilation of 
the Empire.'' The last meeting of the Conference 
was held on the 20th January, 1877, when Safvet 
Pasha expatiated on the "excellent intentions of the 
Ottoman Government.'' Lord Salisbury in reply 
pointed out that the Conference had assembled not 
to record projects of improvements, but "to establish 
administrative autonomy and effective guarantees"; 
whereas "the Porte had only given promises and re- 
fused to give guarantees." The Conference broke 
up : the comedy was over ; nothing was accomplished. 
Turkey had baffled, eluded, and defied the combined 
Powers of Europe, as she had done a score of times 
before with impunity. Lord Salisbury left Constan- 
tinople on the 22nd of January, 1877, and the British 
Ambassador followed him three days later. 

War did not follow immediately. Lord Derby 
continued to urge upon the Porte the necessity of 
carrying out promised reforms, and for a time it 
appeared as though his advice might prevail. The 
armistice was renewed. ^Negotiations were resumed 
by the great Powers, and at the end of March a 
Protocol was signed in London containing a final 
appeal to the Sultan. Immediately afterwards Mr. 
Layard was appointed temporary Ambassador from 
Great Britain at Constantinople — an appointment 
which the Sultan construed as a "delicate mark of 
attention on the part of the English Government." 
The Protocol was rejected; and Montenegro was 
warned that hostilities would immediately be re- 
sumed. During this time Russia, who had half a 
million of men under arms, had exercised patience 
and forbearance. The Tzar was sincerely desirous 
of not acting alone; but iu view of the new refusal 
13 



194 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

of the Porte to bow to the collective will of Europe, 
Russia had no alternative but to make good her reit- 
erated determination not to halt until the ^'principles 
which had been recognised by the whole of Europe 
as just, humane, and necessary" had been "carried 
out, and secured by efficient guarantees.^War was 
declared on the 24th of April, 1877, and on the same 
day the Russian troops crossed the frontier. 

In acknowledging the receipt of the announce- 
ment that Russia had resolved to resort to coercion. 
Lord Derby on behalf of the British Government 
condemned the action as a breach of the public peace, 
a contravention of the terms of the Treaty of Paris, 
and a violation of European law. On the 6th of 
May the Foreign Secretary addressed a despatch to 
the Russian Ambassador in which he stated that as 
long as Turkish interests alone were concerned the 
Porte would receive no assistance from the British 
Government. But he added that should the war 
unfortunately spread, interests might be imperilled 
which the Government were equally bound and de- 
termined to defend. The most prominent of those 
interests were affirmed to be the "keeping open, unin- 
jured and uninterrupted, the communication between 
Europe and the East by the Suez Canal.'' Russia 
was warned that any attack upon Egypt, even its 
temporary occupation for purposes of war, would 
not be regarded with unconcern by England. "The 
vast importance of Constantinople whether from a 
military, a political, or a commercial point of view, 
is too well understood to require explanation. It is 
therefore scarcely necessary to point out that Her 
Majesty's Government are not prepared to witness 
with indifference a passing into other hands than 
those of its present possessors of a capital holding 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 195 

SO peculiar and commanding a position." Lord 
Derby added that there would be serious objections 
to any alteration in the arrangements which had been 
made under European sanction for regulating the 
navigation of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. 

A memorable debate followed in the House of 
Commons on Lord Derby's ^^charter of English neu- 
trality/' as the despatch was termed. Mr. Gladstone 
as the representative of popular feeling in the coun- 
try, which had found no adequate expression through 
the official heads of the Liberal party, moved a series 
of resolutions. His independent action produced 
much division among the Liberals, whose nominal 
leaders had decided not to bring any motion before 
the House at the time. Mr. Cross declared that Mr. 
Gladstone had shirked the real question, whether he 
was prepared to go to war as an ally of Russia against 
Turkey. That was a question, the Home Secretary 
urged, Mr. Gladstone did not dare to put plainly 
either to the House or to the country. There was 
justice in the taunt, because the question was one 
upon which much of the policy of the Government 
had hinged. Mr. Disraeli was not prepared to join 
Russia in an attack on Turkey. Ear from it. He 
had wished during the progress o:l^the war to join 
the Turks against the Russians. ^'If he could, he 
would have raised Turkestan against the Russians at 
the same time for the relief of our Indian frontier: 
measures to that effect were considered, if not ar- 
ranged. That was what he proposed to do, and would 
have done it, but for the strong opposition of his 
colleagues in the Cabinet.''"^ 

Into the details of the Russo-Turkish war it is 

*Mr. Frederick Greenwood. Pall Mall Gazette. Sept. 
16th, 1896. 



196 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

unnecessary to enter. The magnificent defence of 
Plevna by Osman Pasha, and the gallantry with 
which the Turks fought, excited no small amount of 
sympathy in Great Britain. On the fall of Plevna 
the Porte appealed to the Powers for mediation ^^in 
the name of humanity." In reply to the Turkish 
Minister Lord Derby repeated the warning he had 
frequently before given that no intervention by Great 
Britain could be expected. 

IS^umerous communications had passed during the 
course of the war between the Russian and English 
Governments, and the exact course the Tzar pro- 
posed to follow at the conclusion of the war had 
been clearly explained to Lord Derby, who had every 
reason to be satisfied that Russia intended to observe 
her pledges. But the Cabinet was divided, and the 
war-party under Lord Beaconsfield was in the ascend- 
ant. Rumors that the Russians were marching on 
Adrianople, and it was believed would advance on 
Constantinople, brought matter to a crisis. The 
British fleet was ordered to Constantinople, and 
notice was given that Parliament would be asked for 
a vote of credit for six millions. Lord Derby and 
Lord Carnarvon immediately resigned, but after 
forty-eight hours the former resumed the ofiice of 
Foreign Secretary. Twenty-four hours after the 
original order was telegraphed to Admiral Hornby, 
a second telegram was despatched cancelling the 
directions, and ordering the fleet back to Besika Bay. 
On the 31st of January, 1878, an armistice was signed 
between Russia and Turkey; and a week later a de- 
tachment of the British fleet was ordered to Con- 
stantinople, not, it was said, "as a menace,'' but for 
the "protection of the lives and property of British 
subjects.'' The fleet entered the Dardanelles with- 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 197 

out the permission of the Sultan, and therefore in 
direct violation of international treaties to which 
England was a party, providing that no vessels of 
war should pass the Straits without the express con- 
sent of the Porte. That the step did not lead to 
more serious complications was chiefly due to the 
exertions of Sir Henry Layard, and to the modera- 
tion of Russia, who did not fail, however, to profit 
by our example in disregarding international treaties. 
On the 3rd of March, 1878, a treaty of peace be- 
tween Russia and Turkey was signed at San Stef ano. 
This was followed by proposals for an international 
Congress at Berlin, to be attended by the Prime 
Ministers ' of the great Powers. In accepting the 
invitation to attend the Congress, Lord Derby, on 
behalf of the British G-overnment, stipulated as a 
preliminary condition "that all questions dealt with 
in the Treaty of Peace between Russia and Turkey 
should be considered as subjects to be discussed by 
the Congress, and that no alteration in the condition 
of things previously established by Treaty should be 
acknowledged as valid until it had received the assent 
of the Powers." To this demand, which was cer- 
tainly a prudent one, Russia refused to accede. She 
would only pledge herself to accept "discussion on 
those portions of the Treaty which affected European 
interests." The dispute lasted until the 26th of 
March, when the Russian Ambassador handed in the 
final reply of his Government in the following 
terms: "It leaves to the other Powers the liberty 
of raising such questions at the Congress as they 
may think it fit to discuss, and reserves to itself the 
liberty of accepting or not accepting the discussion 
of these questions." The British Cabinet decided to 
refuse to enter the Congress, to call out the Reserves, 



198 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

to bring a contingent of 7,000 Indian troops to Malta, 
to occupy Cj^rus, and possibly also some part of 
Syria. By these decisive steps Lord Beaconsfield 
contended that he induced Russia to modify the 
Treaty of San Stefano, and saved the independence 
of the Turkish Empire. This was no doubt the 
case. But the proceedings were strongly resisted by 
Lord Derby, who, on being overruled, resigned 
office. He was succeeded as Foreign Secretary by 
Lord Salisbury. 

After two months of further negotiation, a 
secret agreement was come to between Russia 
and England. In entering into such an agree- 
ment the British Government overcame the difficul- 
ties between itself and Russia, and ensured the suc- 
cess of the Berlin Congress before it assembled. 
But this and other material advantages were obtained 
at no small sacrifice both of principle and policy, 
^or was that all. It had evidently been intended 
to dupe both the country and Parliament, by creat- 
ing an impression that the modifications of the San 
Stefano Treaty had been wrested from Russia by 
the British Plenipotentiaries during the proceedings 
of the Congress. If that design existed it was frus- 
trated by the premature disclosure of the terms of 
the secret agreement through the unprincipled action 
of a Foreign Office clerk. 

In return for the concessions made under the 
Salisbury-Schouvaloff secret agreement, Russia con- 
sented not to oppose the conclusion of a Convention 
between Turkey and England, which, while fostering 
the belief that Lord Beaconsfield's astute diplomacy 
had won for us far more important concessions than 
had been granted to Russia, sacrificed momentous 
principles, and was rightly regarded by the friends 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE'^ TURK. 199 

of an enlightened political progress as a damnosa 
hereditas. By the Anglo-Tnrkish Convention Cyp- 
rus was ceded to England, who in return pledged 
herself to support the Sultan ^'by force of arms" 
against any attempt Russia might ever make in the 
future to encroach upon the territories of the Porte 
in Asia as defined by the "Definite Treaty of Peace." 
England also undertook, to adopt the words of Mr. 
Gladstone, "to be responsible for the good govern- 
ment of what is perhaps the worst governed country 
in the whole world, — the Turkish territory in Asia, 
from the Dardanelles to the Persian Gulf, from the 
Mediterranean to the limits of Persia." The bitter- 
ness with which the Convention was viewed was not 
lessened by the important fact that England had 
been committed to this policy secretly, and without 
the knowledge and consent of Parliament. 

There was another important principle involved in 
the Anglo-Turkish Convention. From the time of 
the Crimean War down to 1878, we had consistently 
protested against the immorality of the designs of 
Russia for her own aggrandisement. The bogey of 
Russian aggression, of Russian selfishness, and Rus- 
sian treachery, was one with which Lord Beacons- 
field had successfully infiamed the passions of his 
countrymen on many occasions. To resist the at- 
tempts of Russia to obtain a preponderating political 
influence in the territories of the Porte, had been the 
dominant principle of both Liberal and Conserva- 
tive Ministers. We had taken our stand on a high 
plane of public morality. It was a position worthy 
of the political traditions and dignity of the English 
nation. By a stroke Lord Beaconsfield converted 
what had been an honest policy into what our enemies 
might with some show of justice declare to have been 



200 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURA?. 

a policy of hypocrisy. England who had maintained 
the authority of treaties, and had opposed at every 
turn a barrier to Russian territorial aggression, had 
wrung from the Porte the cession of Cyprus without 
the knowledge of the collective European Powers, 
who, with herself, had solemnly guaranteed that no 
infringement of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire 
should be permitted without their assent. The Con- 
vention was never submitted to the Berlin Congress, 
it never received the approval of Europe. 

The treaty of San Stefano ceded to Russia the 
portion of Bessarabia taken from it in 1856, to- 
gether with Kars, Batoum, and the adjoining terri- 
tory in Asia. It recognised the independence of 
Servia, Montenegro, and lioumania, and largely ex- 
tended the territory of the first two. Bulgaria was 
constituted an autonomous state, though tributary 
to the Porte, and was defined so as to extend to the 
-5^gean Sea, and to include the greater part of the 
country between the Balkans and the coast. Crete, 
Thessaly, and Epirus were to receive the neccessary 
reforms at the hands of a European commission. As 
a result of the secret treaty and the proceedings of 
the Berlin Congress numerous modifications were 
made. Of these the principal were a reduction of 
the territory included in Bulgaria, and the division 
of that state into two parts. Bulgaria north of the 
Balkans was constituted an autonomous principality; 
Bulgaria south of the Balkans was made into a prov- 
ince, with the title of Eastern Boumelia, subject to 
the authority of the Sultan, but with a Christian 
governor and an autonomous administration. Aus- 
tria received Bosnia and Herzegovina. The terri- 
tory ceded to Servia and Montenegro, as well as that 
ceded to Russia in Asia, was somewhat diminished. 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. ^01 

The Porte was advised to make some cession of ter- 
ritory to Greece, and the line of frontier subsequently 
recommended gave to Greece Janina as well as Thes- 
saly.* 

Lord Beaconsfield on his return from the Berlin 
Congress claimed to have brought back "peace with 
honour/' "such a peace as will satisfy our Sovereign, 
and add to the fame of our country." The boast was 
a proud one. But if the Peace reflected honour upon 
England, it reflected discredit upon much of Lord 
Beaconsfield's own foreign policy. As long as Lord 
Derby remained at the Foreign Office there had 
been a strong division in the cabinet upon the policy 
to be pursued, with the inevitable result of paralys- 
ing effective action in any direction. The policy of 
the Government was described by Mr. Gladstone as 
one of "zigzag and see-saw." "It would hardly be 
an exaggeration to say that we have not one govern- 
ment, but two — one pulling in one direction con- 
formably to the public sentiment, the other, placed 
nearer the springs of action, constantly turning its 
course directly to the old sense of virtual assistance 
to the Turk."t 

We may believe that Lord Beaconsfield was 
as sincerely desirous as Lord Derby to maintain 
peace. But the amelioration of the condition of 
the Christian population of Turkey did not appeal 
to him with the force with which it appealed to Lord 
Derby, and his other colleagues. To secure effect 
being given to the reforms promised by the Porte Lord 
Derby was prepared, in conjunction with the other 
Powers, to coerce the Sultan, even if coercion en- 

*Encyclopmdia Britnnmca, IX Edition. 

t Mr. Gladstone, Bingley Hall, Birmingham, May 31st, 

1877. 



202 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

dangered the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. But 
on this point he was entirely at variance with Lord 
Beaconsfield, who held with Lord Palmerston that it 
was for the general interest of Enrope, and for the 
special interest of England, that the integrity and 
independence of the Ottoman Empire should be main- 
tained. 

It was this division of opinion which rendered the 
policy of England throughout the crisis ineffectual. 
Mr. Gladstone did not exaggerate when he declared 
that "not in one instance did we either do a deed, or 
speak an effectual word, on behalf of liberty." 
Partly from a well-founded suspicion of Russian 
motives, chiefly from a determination to maintain 
the independence of the Sultan, Lord Beaconsfield 
refused to join with the other Powers in any attempt 
at coercion. There were two pyschological moments 
it appears to us when this might have been done with 
safety and great benefit. The one was when the 
English Terms, which secured the adhesion of all 
the Powers, were rejected by the Porte, the other 
was when Lord Derby's ultimatum demanding a 
month's armistice was delivered to the Sultan. But 
the possibilities of those golden opportunities were 
not seized, with the result that Russia took action 
by herself, and the dismemberment of the Turkish 
Empire, which Lord Beaconsfield had endeavoured 
to prevent, was speedily brought about. Erom first 
to last the Sultan was encouraged by the course of 
British policy to defy both Great Britain and all 
the other Powers. While pressing upon him the 
necessity of carrying out reforms, we simultaneously 
fostered the belief that if the integrity of the Otto- 
man Empire were endangered we should intervene 
by force for its protection. 



THE "UNSPEAKABLE" TURK. 203 

The Eastern Question produced in Great Britain 
a bitterness and division in public opinion almost 
without example. From the day he came out of his 
semi-retirement as the enthusiastic champion of the 
oppressed nationalities of the Balkan provinces, Mr. 
Gladstone regained the confidence of the majority 
of the nation. It was said with truth that though 
Mr. Disraeli was in office, Mr. Gladstone was in 
power. And there can be little doubt that the in- 
fluence which the Government repeatedly sought to 
exert on behalf of liberty, and political progress, 
was a direct result of the pressure of the strong public 
feeling created by the power of Mr. Gladstone's per- 
sonality, and the glamour of his matchless eloquence. 
The nation was almost unanimous in demanding the 
protection of the Christian subjects of Turkey from 
massacre and outrage. But it was very far from be- 
ing unanimous as to the means that should be em- 
ployed. Lord Hartington, Mr. Forster, and many 
other prominent members of the Liberal Party, re- 
fused to accept Mr. Gladstone's views, which became 
more extreme in proportion to the opposition they 
encountered. In a passage which has become his- 
torical, he declared "Let the Turks now carry away 
their abuses in the only possible manner, namely, by 
carrying off themselves; their zaptiehs and their 
Mudris, their Bimbashis and their Yuzbachis, their 
Kaimakams and their Pashas, one and all, bag and 
baggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province 
they have desolated and profaned." But in spite 
of vehement denunciations of the Turks and their 
iniquities, it is very doubtful whether Mr. Glad- 
stone, if he had returned to office in September, 
would have felt justified in entering on a war against 
Turkey which might have set Europe in a blaze. 



^04 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

During the fierce controversy that was waged for 
months a very large proportion of the nation were for 
mending or ending Turkish rule. They did not 
shrink from the consequences involved by the policy; 
many did not fully realise what those consequences 
were, others lost all sense of perspective and saw 
events through a distorted ^dsion. Mr. Disraeli had 
contemptuously ridiculed the earlier reports of the 
Bulgarian atrocities as "coffee-house babble," and had 
scoffed at the idea of Turkish torture of Christians 
on the ground that Oriental people used more primi- 
tive and speedy methods to get rid of their enemies. 
He sneered at Servians demand for liberty, adding 
that what Servia wanted was provinces, — a very 
different thing. On the other side Mr. Freeman, 
the historian, exclaimed, "Perish the interests of Eng- 
land, and perish her dominion in India," rather than 
we should "strike one blow on behalf of Turkey." 
By Mr. Lowe, England's support of the Porte was 
compared to the conduct of a man who keeps a fierce 
and bloodthirsty dog to guard his property and in- 
terests, — an unworthy aspersion upon British policy. 
Quixotic ideas on the Eastern Question were not con- 
fined to either side. 

If there was much that was open to objection in 
Lord Beaconsfield's views of foreign affairs there was 
also much that was extraordinarily sagacious; if he 
delighted to play the role of arbiter in the destinies 
of nations, he was at the same time inspired by a sin- 
cere desire to promote the power and to secure the 
safety of the great Empire to which he belonged. 
His remarkable prescience, his astuteness, which made 
him more than a match for foreign diplomatists, en- 
abled him to realise more clearly than his contem- 



THE '' UNSPEAKABLE " TURK. 205 

poraries the enormous importance of Egypt to Eng- 
land, and the grave danger which would arise from 
Russian intrigue and aggression to the maintenance 
of British rule in India, and British influence in the 
far East. But the Treaty of Berlin was a triumph 
for Russia not for England. All the influence of 
English diplomacy had been exerted in vain to main- 
tain the integrity of the Ottoman Empire; and in the 
partition of territory that took place, we availed our- 
selves of the opportunity to seize Cyprus. Lord 
Beaconsfield had declared that Bessarabia must never 
be given back to Russia, and had quoted with approval 
the opinion of Lord Palmerston that the clause of 
the Treaty of Paris under which the territory was 
ceded was one of "the very greatest importance." 
But the retrocession of Bessarabia had taken place. 
The demands of Russia as embodied in the Treaty of 
San Stefano had been materially reduced, but the re- 
ductions in so^kne instances were futile, and in others 
were made at the expense of the Christian popula- 
tions groaning under Turkish misrule. Within a few 
years Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia were re-united 
into one state. The Balkan forts ceased to be manned 
by Turkish troops. A great victory had been won 
for freedom and political progress, but in that victory 
England had no part. It is not necessary to believe 
that Russia had been inspired only by motives of 
humanity, and sympathy with the Slavonic races of 
the Balkans; but as a result of her policy and her 
action seven millions of people passed from ^^partial 
subjection to complete independence;" four millions 
more came out of "direct enslavement into merely 
nominal dependence." "Three hundred thousand 
heroes such as Christendom cannot match, the men of 



206 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Montenegro, who for four hundred years had held the 
sword in the hand, and never had submitted to the in- 
solence of despotic power — those men at last had 
achieved not only their freedom, but the acknowledg- 
ment of their freedom, and took their place among the 
States of Europe."* It was not without a show of 
reason that Mr. Gladstone exultingly maintained that 
his "bag and baggage'^ policy, upon which utter scorn 
had been poured, had become "the law of Europe." 

*Mr. Gladstone at Edinburgh, Nov. 29th, 1879. 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 207 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 

There can be no question that the act of Mr. 
Disraeli in purchasing in 1875 the shares in the 
Suez Canal held by the Khedive, was one that di- 
rectly made for progress. Many critics doubted the 
wisdom of the step at the time it was taken, but the 
great weight of public opinion has long ago con- 
firmed the sagacity of the bold and momentous stroke 
of policy. When the purchase was made the Suez 
Canal had been opened to commerce for little more 
than six years. The value of the great channel of 
communication was rapidly becoming recognised; 
every month made its importance to British com- 
merce and British influence more clear ; three-fourths 
of the whole tonnage passing through the Canal 
were British, and the proportion was likely to in- 
crease rather than diminish. Of the four hundred 
thousand original shares in the Suez Canal Company, 
177,000 were held by the Khedive. Ismail Pasha, 
who had succeeded in freeing himself from the direct 
control of the sultan, had obtained the title of Khe- 
dive, and had made himself virtually an independent 
sovereign, was a man of much energy, administrative 
ability, and enlightenment. In Egypt he had in- 
augurated a new era of reform. The administrative 
system was reorganised, the Customs remodelled, 
the Post Office established as a branch of the Govern- 



208 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ment service. Education was encouraged, and the 
military schools greatly improved. Railways, tele- 
graphs, lighthouses, and harbour works were carried 
out at enormous cost. ^^The funds required for these 
public works, as well as the actual labour," were 
^' remorselessly extorted from a poverty-stricken 
popidation,'' and there was probably no peasant Avhose 
condition was "worse than that of the long-suffering 
Egyptian fellah." Unfortunately for himself, per- 
haps not altogether unfortunately for his country, 
Ismail Avas no financier. Nor had he been able to 
cope with the official corruption which existed in 
every department of the state, and Egypt had been 
reduced almost to a condition of bankruptcy. 
French advisers whom Ismail called in had found no 
solution of the difficulty. It was not to their inter- 
ests to do so. They hoped to benefit largely by the 
growing embarrassments of the Khedive. 

On the 14th of IN^ovember, 1875, a despatch reached 
the British Foreign Office, stating that the Khedive 
was very desirous of securing the services of two 
gentlemen to undertake the direction of two branches 
of the Finance Ministry, the Direction of Receipts, 
and the Direction of Expenditure. They were not 
only to be conversant with the ordinary routine of 
such offices, but were to be acquainted with the "econ- 
omic studies which govern the development of the 
resources and riches of a country." To this re- 
quest the British Government returned a favourable 
reply. But the needs of the Khedive were pressing. 
It was essential that he should obtain nearly four 
millions before the end of the month. He endeav- 
oured without success to raise the sum as a loan, on 
the security of his Suez Canal shares from a French 
Syndicate. The Syndicate, which practically meant 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 209 

the French Goyernment, hoped to acquire the shares 
outright upon more favourable terms. 

Mr. Frederick Greenwood, at that time Editor of 
the Pall Mall Gazette, suddenly learned that the 
shares were being bargained for. He went immedi- 
ately to the Foreign Office, and urged upon Lord 
Derby that the shares should be bought by the Brit- 
ish Government, who were unaware of what was 
going on. To this step, there were, of course, many 
objections and these had to be combatted. The pro- 
posal that the Government should buy shares in a 
commercial undertaking was without precedent. 
The Ministry had neither money nor authority which 
would enable them to act. Parliament was not sit- 
ting: and nothing could be done. It must be con- 
fessed that Mr. Greenwood's proposal was one that 
might well have staggered any Cabinet minister. 
But if the purchase was a daring stroke it was one 
which for many strong reasons justified bold and 
independent action. The proposal was brought be- 
fore the Prime Minister, and in twenty-four hours 
Mr. Greenwood^s suggestion was adopted, and the 
matter as good as settled, l^ot a word of what was 
being done got into the papers, and in a week from 
the day of its proposal the transaction was completed. 
When the announcement appeared in The Times on 
the 26th of l^ovember it made a great sensation. 
The public were quick to realise what the purchase 
meant. Hats went up all over the country, and Mr. 
Disraeli's reputation went up with them, and did 
not come down again. 

Of Mr. Greenwood's part in this important trans- 
action the world has heard too little. The truth is 
that but for his foresight and timely action the Suez 
Canal shares would never have been bought by Great 



210 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Britain, but would have passed, and mth them the 
sole control of the canal, into French hands. 

To Mr. Gladstone, and nearly all members of the 
Opposition, it seemed both immoral, and politically 
false, for England to seek to establish any effective 
hold over Eg^^^^t. Mr. Fawcett, one of the most 
moderate and independent members of his party 
speaking at Hackney, declared that "if even a small 
portion of the consequences which some of its enthu- 
siastic admirers attributed to it were likely to result 
from the purchase of the shares, he should look upon 
the proceeding with grave misgiving. Before the 
transaction had been announced twenty-four hours, 
the glittering prospect was held out to them of inter- 
fering and meddling in the affairs of Egypt, and a 
protectorate and a suzerainty were talked about. It 
would be imjust to the Government for a moment to 
suppose that they meant anything of that kind." 
Though a forward policy in Egypt had not been pub- 
licly avowed, it had been determined upon by Mr. 
Disraeli. He saw the need of increasing and main- 
taining our political ascendency there, if other 
Powers were to be kept from menacing Egyptian 
independence. Europe was given to understand that 
if we were not going to confiscate Egypt, neither 
would any other Power be permitted to do so; that 
we were embarking on a policy to obtain some definite 
securities that Eg^^Dt should not pass into other hands, 
and to protect our highway to India and the East. 

Less than a fortnight before the purchase, Lord 
Hartington, the leader of the Opposition, had said 
"no one knows better than does Mr. Disraeli that the 
foreign policy which this country wants, is, as Mr. 
Bright has recently expressed it, Wt a spirited for- 
eign policy, but a just foreign policy,' " There was 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 211 

a good deal too much "spirit" in the action of Mr. 
Disraeli to please his critics. When the House met, 
Mr. Gladstone took the lead in attacking both the 
manner of the purchase, and the results of it. In his 
reply Mr. Disraeli based the defence of his action on 
political grounds. "If it gave us ten per cent of inter- 
est/' he said, "and a security as good as the Consols, 
I do not think an English Minister would be justified 
in making such an investment; still less if he is 
obliged to borrow the money for the occasion. I do 
not recommend it either as a commercial speculation, 
although I believe that many of those who have 
looked upon it with little favour will probably be 
surprised with the pecuniary results of the purchase. 
I have always, and do now, recommend it to the 
country as a political transaction, and one which I 
believe is calculated to strengthen the Empire. That 
is the spirit in which it has been accepted by the 
country. They want the Empire to be maintained, 
to be strengthened, they will not be alarmed even if 
it be increased, because they think we are getting a 
great hold and interest in this important portion of 
Africa, because they believe that it secures to us a 
highway to our Indian Empire and our other depen- 
dencies."* 

In these words Mr. Disraeli foreshadowed much 
that has come to pass. Our ascendency in Egypt 
has unquestionably been of great value both directly 
and indirectly to the Empire; but the benefits we 
have received are as nothing compared with the bene- 
fits we have conferred. Our policy has been "just" 
as well as "spirited." Our power has not been exer- 
cised for selfish ends, but in the interests of human- 
ity and civilisation. 

*Mr. Disraeli, House of Gommons, Feb. 21st, 1876. 



212 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

In a not less striking degree time has justified Mr. 
Disraeli's prediction as to the commercial value of 
the Suez Canal shares. It is obvious enough nov^r, 
though it does not appear to have been recognised 
then, that the very fact of the shares having been 
purchased by England ensured the success of the 
Canal, and by a stroke of the pen enormously en- 
hanced the value of the shares. Before the action 
of Mr. Disraeli the shares in the Suez Canal Com- 
pany were held by a multitude of private persons in 
France, with the effete, and bankrupt Khedive at 
their head. Beyond the ready money value of his 
shares the Khedive was comparatively indifferent to 
the Canal and its interests. Whether the cost of 
maintenance were great or small, whether the dues 
were reasonable or oppressive, whether the existence 
of the Canal were secure or in jeopardy, the Khedive 
cared little, and even if he had cared was practically 
helpless. But when the greatest political and com- 
mercial Power of the world suddenly became the 
chief proprietor of the Suez Canal, a vast change was 
made in the position and prospects of the Company. 
For the future, on commercial as well as political 
grounds, there could be no one so deeply interested in 
the prosperity, maintenance, and security of the 
Canal as Great Britain. The magnitude of the Brit- 
ish influence was also a guarantee that a more liberal 
policy would prevail in the administration of the 
Canal, and that a reduction would be made in the 
dues which pressed heavily upon merchants. This 
was done. The Canal started on a course of com- 
mercial prosperity which will only cease when the 
shipping of the world ceases to grow. The shares 
began steadily to rise in value. In six years what 
Mr. Disraeli paid four millions for, was worth eight 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 213 

and three-quarter millions. To-day the value of the 
shares is twenty-six and a half millions. Mr., Dis- 
raeli might well believe that those who condemned 
his purchase as a commercial speculation would event- 
ually be surprised by the pecuniary results. 

In 1887 the neutrality of the Suez Canal was guar- 
anteed by an Anglo-French Convention. By this 
agreement, the ships of all nations, including men- 
of-war, are permitted whether in times of peace or 
war to pass through the Canal, which is exempt from 
blockade, fortification, or military occupation of any 
kind. Both the water-way, and the land for three 
miles on either side, were declared neutral territory. 
In 1894 owing to the vast development of trafiic it 
became necessary to increase the width and depth of 
the Canal. Its capacity was still further augmented 
by the use of electric lights and luminous buoys, en- 
abling traffic to be carried on at night, and the time 
required for a ship to pass through the Canal was 
reduced by half. 

The relief from financial embarrassment afforded 
the Khedive by the sale of his Suez Canal shares 
was only temporary. A few months later, finding 
himself unable to meet the demands of his creditors, 
he suspended payment. Mr. Goschen, M. P., and M. 
Joubert were sent to Egypt to solve the difficulty. 
A satisfactory scheme dealing with the many compli- 
cations into which the country had been plunged, was 
drawn up; and to ensure the reforms recommended 
being carried out the Khedive appointed English and 
French Comptrollers-General, who were entrusted 
with "the collection of the revenue and the appropria- 
tion of it to the purposes settled by the financial 
scheme." But it was foimd impossible to restrain 
the extravagance of the Khedive, and in 1879, with 



214 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

the consent of the Sultan, he was deposed, and his son 
Prince Tewfik placed on the throne. The joint con- 
trol exercised by England and France though it did 
much for the country was not effective, and Arabi 
Pasha, aided by the intrigues of Ismail, succeeded in 
raising a formidable military revolt. The insurgents 
occupied Alexandria, and proceeded to fortify the 
port. The English and French fleets were ordered 
to the spot, but France objected to any intervention, 
or to the exercise of force to put down the rebellion. 
In the bombardment and military operations that 
followed England was left to act alone. A British 
force under the command of Sir Garnet Wolseley 
inflicted an overwhelming defeat upon Arabi and his 
forces at Tel-el-Kebir on the 31st of August, 1882, 
and order was once more restored. The refusal of 
France to take part in the naval and military opera- 
tions broke up the Dual control, which was replaced 
by the British military occupation of Egypt. From 
this time, in spite of many troubles and difliculties, 
Egypt has made steady progress. Order, good gov- 
ernment, and solvency, have been evolved from chaos. 
In carrying out this task, which is assuredly one of 
which Great Britain has cause to be proud, the ablest 
men of the country have taken part. Among the 
eminent Englishmen who have devoted their time 
and al)ilities to secure the moral, political, and mater- 
ial improvement of Egypt, Lord Dufferin, Lord 
ISTorthbrook, Lord Cromer (formerly Sir Evelyn Bar- 
ing), Mr. Goschen, Sir C. Rivers Wilson, Sir Edward 
Malet, Sir Edgar Vincent, Mr. Justice Scott, Sir 
Colin Moncrieff, and a score of others might be men- 
tioned, to show with what energy and wisdom British 
Governments have carried on the great work of 
reform. 



I]GYPT AND THiS SOUDAN. 215 

The powers of the Khedive have been greatly re- 
stricted, and he may be now regarded as a constitu- 
tional rnler, who does little more than sanction the 
decisions of his Cabinet. Over the financial, inter- 
nal, and foreign relations of the country, the agents 
of the British Government practically exercise con- 
trol. In 1883 a limited measure of self-government 
was extended to the people. The consent of a Gen- 
eral Assembly, based on universal suffrage, is re- 
quired for all new direct personal or land taxes. A 
Legislative Council acts as an advisory body to the 
Government, who, however, are not bound to follow 
its advice. Many provincial Boards with purely local 
functions have been established throughout the coun- 
try, and from many other points of view progress 
has been secured. By means of dams and irriga- 
tion vast areas of waste land have been reclaimed and 
rendered fertile. The Corvee, or enforced labour 
system which was as old as the Pyramids, and under 
which the people were held in a state of brutal deg- 
radation, has been abolished. "With it have disap- 
peared the cruel Kurbash, melded by a truculent 
police, arbitrary taxation, fraudulent tax-gatherers,'' 
shamelessly corrupt officials, venal magistrates, and 
many other abuses which had existed for centuries. 
With security and good government, the resources of 
the country have steadily developed, and though 
large reductions have been made in the land, salt, 
and other taxes, the revenue continues to grow, and 
it is not too much to say that to-day Egyptian finance 
is on a thoroughly sound basis. 

Our occupation of Egypt when the Khedive's Gov- 
ernment had been overthrown by the insurrection of 
the army under Arabi, was "the final outcome of a 
Mediterranean policy which has been in principle 



216 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

continuous for a century and a half. The lines laid 
down on this and all other points by Pitt, Canning, 
Palmerston, and Beaconsfield — themselves a practi- 
cal continuation of the policy of former ages — have 
been, and are still, those upon which modern British 
Foreign Policy has been built. 'No change can be 
made in it without the greatest danger to the country, 
first of all to its commerce, next to the sustenance of 
its teeming millions, next to its possessions, and finally 
to the safety of its own shores.''^ 

British influence in the Soudan has been only one 
degree less important than in Egypt. Unfortunately 
there has not been the same continuity of policy, the 
same determination of purpose, in dealing with the 
two countries, with the inevitable result of periods of 
failure and disaster in the Soudan, instead of an un- 
chequered record of reform and progress. 

It was not until 1820 that an attempt was made by 
the rulers of Egypt to extend their authority over 
any part of the vast territory of the Soudan. Dur- 
ing the following years the frontiers of Egypt were 
steadily pushed towards the South, and by 1853 the 
advance had passed beyond Khartoum. Trade fol- 
lowed the flag, and much of the country was opened 
up and explored by daring adventurers. But in the 
heart of the Dark Continent "trade'' carried vdth it 
none of the benefits it confers upon lands under the 
influence of civilisation. In the Equatorial regions 
of Africa "trade" practically meant traffic in only 
two things, — ivory and human beings. Of the two 
commodities slaves were found to be the more profit- 
able, and a large traffic speedily sprang up. Euro- 
peans turned away in disgust from the employment, 

^History of the Foreign Policy of Ch'eat Britain by Pro- 
fessor Montagu Burrows, p. 286. 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 21Y 

which fell into the hands of Arabs, who left behind 
them ruin wherever they went. " The atrocities 
committed by these traders/' Captain Speke writes, 
" are beyond civilised belief." Whole districts were 
depopulated and laid waste. When Baker first saw 
the Victoria Nile, in 1864, he found it " a perfect 
garden, thickly populated, and producing all that 
man could desire. '' Eight years later when he re- 
turned to the district it had become a wilderness, the 
population had fled, not a village existed. This was 
the work of the Khartoum slave-dealers. The ac- 
cursed trade went on unchecked, because Government 
officials, Turks and Egyptians, were pecuniarily inter- 
ested in its maintenance. WTien the Khedive at 
length moved, it was not out of pity for the countless 
sufferers, but out of fear of the growing power of 
the slave-traders, who headed by Zebehr Rahema 
threatened to become masters of the whole country. 
Among the ambitious dreams of the Khedive Is- 
mail, was the creation in the centre of Africa, of a 
great province, which in time would give rise to a 
vast trade, and open up the resources of the interior 
of the Continent. But all legitimate trade was im- 
possible until slave hunting was put down. Ac- 
cordingly in 1869 Sir Samuel Baker was appointed 
Commander of a military expedition for the suppres- 
sion of the slave-trade, with absolute authority over 
the country South of Gondokoro. With the inade- 
quate resources at his command. Baker accomplished 
much of value both for humanity and science. But 
the task of coping with the Arab slave-dealers was 
beyond his power. If he stamped out the evil in one 
district, it sprang up in another. Many men in high 
office in the Egyptian Government were pecuniarily 
interested in the " black ivory '' traffic, and used their 



218 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

influence to thwart the efforts of Baker and the policy 
of the Khedive. After four years of toil Baker had 
driven the powerful slave-dealers into more remote 
districts. The traffic had not been stopped, it had 
hardly been checked; it had only been transferred to 
other regions, where the authority of the Governor 
could not make itself felt. 

In 1872 Xubar Pasha, the most capable and honest 
of all the Khedive's Egyptian advisers, met Colonel 
Gordon at Constantinople. The result of this chance 
interview was the appointment of Gordon to succeed 
Sir Samuel Baker, who had resigned his command. 
The Khedive proposed to give Gordon £10,000 a 
year: he refused, and accepted £2,000. ^'My ob- 
ject," he wrote to his sister, "is to show the Khedive 
and his people that gold and silver idols are not wor- 
shipped by all the world." He did not go to the 
Soudan to "pillage the Eg^^tians," but to carry out 
with Avonderful courage, resolution, and self-sacrifice, 
the great mission of freeing and protecting the "poor, 
miserable creatures" who were the helpless prey of 
the Arab slave-dealers. 

Gordon found the Province of the Equator with 
only three stations, held by a few Egyptian troops, 
and almost without organisation. His first object 
Avas to remedy this defect. Without an organised 
government nothing useful could be accomplished. 
Yacoob Pasha and Raouf Bey with whom he was 
associated were openly hostile to him. There was no 
support to be got from any officer of the Government. 
"The Khedive," he writes, "gave me a Eirman as 
Governor-General of the Equator, and left me to 
work out the rest. I had to depend on myself en- 
tirely." Paouf Bey was got rid of; Gordon took the 
finances of the Province under his own control; and 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 219 

by the end of 1874 he had put his system of adminis- 
tration on a sound footing, and had done much to stop 
slave-hunting. The second year was devoted to es- 
tablishing a line of fortified posts between Grondokoro 
and Foweira. A fifty-ton steamer and two other 
boats were taken up in sections, and put together at 
Duffli. By 1876 things were generally consolidated, 
but it was evident that opposition would be made to 
the advance to Lake Victoria. The King of Unyoro 
was powerful and hostile. Mtesa, the King of 
Uganda, declared he would resist any advance of the 
Egyptians. To meet these difficulties Gordon was 
without adequate means. Progress to the Victoria 
ISTyanza was checked, and he returned with ^'^the sad 
conviction that no good could be done in those parts, 
and that it would have been better had no expedition 
ever been sent." But he had not given up the task. 
"I do not like to be beaten," he says in his Diary, 
"which I am if I retire; and by retiring I do not 
remedy anything. By staying, I keep my province 
safe from injustice and cruelty in some degree." 

At the end of 1876 Gordon returned to England. 
He was greatly discouraged by the insuperable diffi- 
culties of the task he had imdertaken. Chief among 
these was the presence of Yacoob Pasha at Khartoum. 
"He had successfully checked slave-driving in his 
own province, but he could do nothing to stop it in 
the extensive Soudan district," where Khartoum was 
the head-quarters of the system at which Yacoob con- 
nived. But the Khedive was unwilling Gordon 
should resign. The enormous value of his work was 
recognised even by the Pashas of Egypt. Baker's 
expedition had cost the Egyptian Government over 
£1,170,000: Gordon had been able to remit sufficient 
money to Cairo to pay all the expenses of his admin- 



220 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

istration. Baker was an honourable gentleman; the 
difference in results is merely an evidence of the 
difference in the administrative and organising capac- 
ity of the two men. Strong pressure was therefore 
put upon Gordon to go back. His reply was "either 
give me the Soudan, or I will not go." The Khedive 
yielded gladly. He did more. "Setting a just 
value," he wrote to Gordon, "on your honourable 
character, on your zeal, and on the great services 
that you have already done me, I have resolved to 
bring the Soudan, Darfour, and the provinces of the 
Equator, into one great province, and to place it 
under you as Governor-General." On February 
18th, 187Y, Gordon left Cairo to take up his gigantic 
task. "I go up alone," he wrote, "with an infinite 
Almighty God to direct and guide me, and am glad 
to so trust Him as to fear nothing, and, indeed, to 
feel sure of success." 

Considering the scanty means at his command, the 
work upon which Gordon now entered was, perhaps, 
one of the greatest and most difficult tasks any man 
ever undertook. Its solitude and isolation were in 
themselves enough to daunt the staunchest heart. 
It was "the sacrifice of a living life. To give your 
life to be taken at once, is one thing; to live a life 
such as is before me is another and more trying or- 
deal. I have set my face to the work, and will give 
my life to it." In carrying out his great work for 
the redemption of the oppressed and enslaved people 
for whom he felt so deep a sympathy, Gordon was 
sustained by a lofty conviction, a simple, and humble 
faith in an over-ruling Providence, that gave him 
the heart of a lion, and an energy that never seemed 
to flag. For three years he traversed in every direc- 
tion the vast territories under his rule. For months 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 221 

together he seemed to live on the back of his camel. 
In the three years 1877-9 he rode 8,500 miles on 
camels and mules. ^^J^either the numbers of his 
enemies, nor the fiercest sun of terrible deserts could 
check his energy. His presence, multiplied by inces- 
sant toil into twenty times the reality, awed the wild 
tribes into obedience, and for the first time in its 
history the Soudan" found law and justice united 
with government. Wherever he went he listened 
patiently to all petitioners, and rendered justice on 
the spot. His decisions were a terror to evil-doers, 
the news of his sympathy with the people groaning 
under oppression, spread like wildfire through the 
country, and he was besieged by suppliants to none 
of whom a deaf ear was ever turned. He was a man 
who had come to administer righteousness and justice, 
— to ^'hold the balance level," as he declared at Khar- 
toum. 

In describing the difficulties with which he had to 
grapple, GoTdon says, "I have to contend with many 
vested interests, with fanaticism, with the abolition 
of hundreds of Arnauts, Turks, etc. now acting as 
Bashi-Bazouks, with inefficient governors, with wild 
independent tribes of Bedouins, and with a large semi- 
independent province lately under Zebehr, the Black 
Pasha, at Bahr-el-Gazelle." Among these people, 
among the Arab slave-dealers, who hated even more 
than they feared him, Gordon went about unarmed, 
often almost alone, always without any adequate 
body-guard. His life was many times in danger, 
but he always escaped. There was something about 
the man which over-awed his enemies, and inspired 
extraordinary confidence and affection in the unfor- 
tunate natives. By the end of three years the vast 
territory under his command had been reduced to 



222 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

something like order. Many rebellions had been put 
down; means of communication had been opened up, 
peace was established. But the slave-trade con- 
tinued. I^ight and day Gordon had laboured to 
make a clean sweep of the dealers in flesh and blood, 
but it was beyond his power, or the power of any 
other man under the conditions that then existed. 
"I declare," he writes in March, 1879, "if I could 
stop this traffic I would mllingly be shot this night. 
This shows my ardent desire, and yet, strive as I can, 
I can scarcely see any hope of arresting the evil." 
Arrested the evil had been, but it was still very far 
from having been destroyed. He had "cut off the 
slave-dealers in their strongholds," ho had taught the 
people to love him. That this great work was after- 
wards undone must always remain a dark blot upon 
Egyptian and British statesmanship. Political pro- 
gress in the highest sense of the term had been 
achieved by Gordon during his rule in the Soudan. 
But the end had been reached. Under the great 
strain that so long had been upon him Gordon's 
health was giving way. The deposition of Ismail, 
the placing of Tewffk on his father's throne, attempts 
on the part of the Egyptian Ministry to force upon 
him a policy of which he disapproved, made Gordon 
determine to resign, and in 1880 he returned to Eng- 
land. 

The new Khedive Tewfik and his ministers cared 
little about the Soudan : the British Government, now 
a Liberal one under Mr. Gladstone, cared even less. 
To them "the Soudan was a region lying so remote 
from the world of what is called practical politics 
that it_ might be safely left to stew in its own juice." 
Gordon had left the Soudan peaceful and prosperous. 
But no sooner was his influence removed than the 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 223 

old causes of unrest began to re-assert themselves. A 
rebellion which began in 1881 gradually spread over 
nearly the whole of the vast region. Two things had 
come to the native tribes, — "a leader to give unity 
to their efforts, and a knowledge that they were in 
every way better men and braver soldiers than the 
race which had. so long ill-treated them. The leader 
who in the interval had arisen to give point and pur- 
pose to the hitherto chaotic discontent of the Moham- 
medan Soudan was no ordinary man. Born of lowly 
parents in Dongola, Mahomet Achmet, the l^ubian 
carpenter's son, had gradually succeeded in uniting 
the long separated nations of the middle Nile into one 
powerful confederation, whose objects were the ex- 
pulsion of the Turk, and the cleansing of the creed of 
Islam from the corruptions of Ottoman ascendency. 
To his friends he was a genius, a guide, a Mahdi ; to 
his enemies an impostor, a villain, a fanatic ; to history 
he will be a man who proved his possession of great 
genius by the creation of an empire out of nothing, 
and by the triumph of his revolt''* during a long 
course of years. 

The rebellion lead by the Mahdi continued to 
spread during the years 1882-3. To check it the 
remnants of the Egyptian army were collected and 
sent to Khartoum, and under the command of Col. 
Hicks and half a dozen other English officers, ad- 
vanced in Sept., 1883, towards Kordofan. ^^Two 
months later the entire force, numbering ten thou- 
sand men, twenty guns, five hundred horses, five 
thousand camels, was annihilated." So complete was 
the slaughter that for many weeks no details of the 
disaster were known. The news was received with 
dismay in Egypt and in England. It was clear that 

* Charles George Gordon, by Col. Sir William Butler, 



'224 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

something would have to be done. British influence 
on the Nile was threatened, the safety of Egypt was 
at stake, the garrisons left in the Soudan had to be 
thought of. Either the Soudan had to be recon- 
quered, or evacuated. Mr. Gladstone and the British 
Government resolved upon a policy of scuttle. It 
saved trouble, it was believed to be cheap, it would 
not disturb the arrangements that had been made 
for meeting the indebtedness of Egypt. Statesman- 
ship cannot be said to have entered into the decision. 
Gordon was summoned by telegraph from Brussels 
to London. The resolve of the Government was told 
to him by Lord Wolseley, and he attended a meet- 
ing of the Cabinet on Jan. 18th, 1884. What trans- 
pired is best told in Gordon's own words. The Min- 
isters said: — " ^Did Wolseley tell you our orders?' 
I said ^Yes.' I said, ^You will not guarantee the 
future government of the Soudan, and you wish me 
to go up to evacuate now.' They said, 'Yes,' and it 
was over." The same evening Gordon started for 
Khartoum. 

At Cairo the Khedive gave Gordon a Firman re- 
appointing him Governor-General of the Soudan, and 
defining the objects of his mission with much more 
care than the British Cabinet had taken. After 
stating that Gordon was to evacuate the Soudan ter- 
ritories, ''to withdraw our troops, civil officials, and 
such of the inhabitants, together with their belong- 
ings, as may wish to leave for Egypt," the Firman 
went on to say, "after completing the evacuation you 
will take the necessary steps for establishing an 
organised government in the different provinces of 
the Soudan, for the maintenance of order, and the 
cessation of all disasters and incitement to revolt." 
These directions involved a great deal more than the 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 225 

withdrawal of the Europeans and the Egyptian civil 
element from the Soudan. Were they given with 
the sanction of the British Government ? Speaking 
in the House of Commons on Feb. 14th Mr. Glad- 
stone said: — "the direct actions and direct functions 
in which General Gordon is immediately connected 
with this Government, are, I think, pretty much ab- 
sorbed in the greater duties of the large mission he 
has undertaken, under the immediate authority of 
the Egyptian Government, with the full moral, and 
political responsibility of the British Government." 
The Khedive in addressing Baron Malortie, after the 
appointment of Gordon, said "I could do no more 
than delegate to Gordon my own power, and make 
him irresponsible arbiter of the situation. What- 
ever he does will be well done, whatever arrange- 
ments he will make we accepted in advance, what- 
ever combination he may decide upon will be binding 

for us He is now the supreme master." 

It is necessary to quote these statements, because an 
attempt was afterwards made to defend British Min- 
isters on the ground that Gordon had exceeded his 
instructions. 

Gordon reached Khartoum on Feb. 18th, 1884. 
He told the people that "he had come again to hold 
the balance level." "There were to be no more 
Bashi-Bazouks. He had not brought troops but had 
come alone. He would not fight with any weapon 
but justice." During the seven or eight weeks com- 
munications remained opened, 2,600 women, chil- 
dren, and employees, were sent across the IN^ubian 
desert to Korosko, and arrived, according to Col. 
Duncan who received them, "in an almost perfect 
state of comfort." While this work was going for- 
ward, and Gordon was carrying out the first part of 
15 



226 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

his instructions, the British Government took the 
fatal step of sending a military expedition to Suakim 
for the relief of the besieged garrison of Tokar. 

In an attempt to rescue Tokar and Sinkat the 
Egyptian troops under Baker Pasha, had been de- 
feated on Feb. 4th with great slaughter by Osman 
Digna. Attacked upon their vacillating and incon- 
sistent policy the British Government urged that they 
had not taken any action on behalf of the garrisons 
in the Eastern Soudan, as to do so might endanger 
the safety of Gordon, and those he had gone to 
rescue. But resolutions of censure were pressed by 
the Opposition, who failed in the House of Commons, 
but obtained a majority against the Ministry in the 
House of Lords. There was a strong feeling 
throughout the country in favour of smashing the 
Mahdi and holding the Soudan. But the Govern- 
ment would do neither the one thing nor the other. 
They had sent Gordon to evacuate the Soudan. 
They had determined upon non-intervention. They 
had declared that to send British troops to Suakim 
might endanger Gordon and the garrisons in Khar- 
toum, Darfour, Bahr-el-Gazelle, and Gondokoro. 
But while they recognised this danger the Govern- 
ment grew alarmed for their own safety. If they 
were to keep office it seemed necessary to do some- 
thing in response to the war feeling in the country. 
The cheapest and most non-committal thing was to 
send a British expedition to relieve Tokar. A force 
4,000 strong, under General Graham, was accord- 
ingly sent, and Osman Digna was routed at El-Tel 
and Tamai, the garrison of Tokar having previously 
surrendered and joined the rebels. By this step the 
British Government abandoned their policy of peace- 
ful evacuation. They had entered on the path of 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 227 

force ^^just far enough to exasperate the people of 
the Soudan/' but not far enough to be of the slight- 
est practical use. The slaughter of Osman Digna's 
troops "roused the fury of the Soudanese to fever- 
pitch. The connection between Gordon's presence 
at Khartoum and a projected conquest of the country 
by the English seemed at once apparent." In place 
of "the hated Turk" "the detested Infidel had come 
to establish rule over the bands of Islam." "All the 
hesitation which had before existed in the minds of 
the Arab tribes about Khartoum instantly disap- 
peared."* On the North and East sides of Khar- 
toum, the sides nearest Suakim, a neutral population 
had been turned into a hostile one. All chance of a 
peaceful evacuation of the Soudan was at an end. 
"The operations round Suakim," says Sir W. Butler, 
"lasted exactly three weeks. When they began 
Khartoum was open on every side ; when they ended, 
the siege had begun." 

Gordon had gone to Khartoum invested with the 
fullest powers. Whatever arrangements he made 
were to be accepted in advance, whatever demands 
he formulated to enable him to carry out his instruc- 
tions, were to be complied with by the authorities. 
Under those solemn assurances he had set out upon 
a mission of great danger and difficulty. But every 
promise that had been given him was broken. In- 
stead of "unlimited trust" being placed in his judg- 
ment, his advice was systematically ignored, his de- 
mands were in every case rejected. Many causes 
contributed to these results. The British Cabinet 
was divided; the Egyptian Ministry was divided; Sir 
Evelyn Baring, who had been entrusted with the duty 

*IAfe of Gordon^ by Col. Sir William Butler. 



228 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

basis and keeping them there, was opposed to any 
policy that would increase the difficulties with which 
he had to grapple. He was perhaps the most potent 
factor in the situation. He knew his own mind ; 
there was no vacillation in his policy. It was one 
of almost persistent hostility to Gordon. But we do 
not consider that it is just that Sir Evelyn Baring 
should be called upon to answer for the disasters that 
followed. Important as was the position he occu- 
pied, he was only a subordinate. His views might 
be right or wrong; but they could have no effect with- 
out tlie sanction of the British Cabinet. To make a 
scapegoat of Sir Evelyn in order to shield his supe- 
riors, is as unjust as it is ridiculous. Carried to its 
logical conclusion such a proceeding would destroy 
the responsibility of any government for a definite 
policy, and enable it to shift the blame on to the 
shoulders of its subordinates. The men responsible 
for the disasters in the Soudan, for the abandonment 
and death of Gordon, were the members of the Brit- 
ish Cabinet, and unless the highest positions under 
the Crown are to be divorced from responsibility, 
unless those who control the destinies of the Empire 
are to wield power without being held answerable 
for their use of it, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Granville, 
and Lord Hartington, will be arraigned at the bar of 
history to receive whatever judgment a dispassionate 
posterity may pronounce upon them. 

Mr. Hake in his introduction to ^'Gordon's Jour- 
nals" has drawn up a powerful and unanswerable in- 
dictment of the treatment of Gordon after he reached 
Khartoum. Twelve specific demands were made by 
Gordon, and they were one and all rejected or 
ignored. (1) He asked for permission to visit the 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 229 

Malidi. Sir Evelyn Baring in the name of the British 
Government forbade him to do so. (2) He proposed 
as the best means of fulfilling his mission to go to the 
Bahr-el-Gazelle and Equatorial Provinces. Sanction 
to proceed beyond Khartoum was refused. (3) He 
asked that 3,000 Turkish troops, in British pay, 
should be sent to Suakim. On the advice of Sir 
Evelyn Baring the British Government refused the 
request. (4) Convinced that some government was 
essential for the safety of the Soudan, and the rescue 
of its garrisons, he asked that Zebehr Pasha should 
be sent to him and appointed Governor-General. 
Zebehr was an Arab well known to all the peoples of 
the Soudan, and possessed great influence over them. 
The request for his aid was repeated a score of times 
during ten months. But the British Government 
refused to allow the Khedive to make the appoint- 
ment. (5) Gordon asked for a Eirman which as- 
serted a moral control and suzerainty over the Sou- 
dan. This was peremptorily refused. (6) He re- 
quested that Indian Moslem troops should be sent to 
Wady Haifa. Kefused. (Y) He asked for 100 
British troops to be sent to Assouan or to Wady 
Haifa. Refused. (8) He urged that the power of 
the Mahdi must be broken. The British Govern- 
ment declined to countenance such a policy. (9) All 
these requests having been refused, Gordon warned 
the Government that if his demand to have the Ber- 
ber-Suakim route kept open by Moslem troops were 
not acted upon, he felt convinced he would be caught 
in Khartoum. In reply Sir Evelyn Baring advised 
Gordon "to reconsider the whole question carefully,'' 
and then to state what he recommended ! (10) In 
reply Gordon telegraphed "the combination of 
Zebehr and myself is an absolute necessity for sue- 



230 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

cess. To do any good we must be together and that 
without delay." The combination was urged by Sir 
EveljTi Baring, who informed the Government that 
he believed Zebehr might ^'be made a bulwark against 
the approach of the Mahdi." Refused. (11) Bar- 
ing informed Lord Granville that Gordon "had on 
several occasions" pressed for 200 British troops to 
be sent to Wady Haifa, and advised that the request 
should be refused. (12) Gordon desired a British 
diversion at Berber, Baring replied that there was no 
intention of sending a force there. 

While the British Government and their advisers 
were wasting the precious weeks in writing futile 
telegrams the Mahdi and his Emirs had been busy. 
A policy of action was opposed to a policy of words. 
Khartoum was being hemmed in. Berber was cap- 
tured early in April. The telegraph lines were cut, 
Khartoum was surrounded, and one of the most 
memorable sieges in history began. It lasted from 
April, 1884, to the 26th of January, 1885, 319 days, 
or only seven days less than the Siege of Sebastapol. 
During the first five months the British Government 
did nothing. Eventually they sent an expedition 
under the Command of Lord Wolseley to rescue 
Gordon, and secure the retreat of "the Khartoum 
garrison, and of such of the civil employees of Khar- 
toum, together with their families, as may wish to 
return to Egypt." That was all that was to be done. 
The other garrisons were to be abandoned to their 
fate: the Soudan was to be left to work out its 
own salvation. Gordon indignantly repudiated the 
suggestion that the expedition was being sent to 
rescue him. England had felt that she was bound 
in honour to save the garrisons. Gordon had at- 
tempted the task and had failed. The expedition 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. 231 

under Lord Wolselej was a second effort to fulfil the 
obligation. To relieve Khartoum and ignore the 
other garrisons was "a disgrace." 

It is not necessary to describe the heroic defence 
of Khartoum. The details are known wherever the 
English language is spoken. We may say with Sir 
W. Butler, there may be sadder pages in our history, 
but we have not read them. The end came on Jan- 
uary 26th; the advance column of Lord Wolseley's 
force reached Khartoum on January 28th. It was 
the most dramatic setting of the fateful words, "Too 
Late," the world had ever witnessed. Among the 
last words Gordon wrote were these two memorable 
sentences: — "Like Lawrence, I have tried to do 
my duty" : "I have done the best for the honour of 
our country." "Thus fell in dark hour of defeat a 
man as unselfish as Sidney, of courage as dauntless as 
Wolfe, of honour stainless as Outram, of sympathy 
wide reaching as Drummond, of honesty straightfor- 
ward as ISTapier, of faith as steadfast as More. Doubt- 
ful indeed is it if anywhere in the past we shall find 
figure of knight or soldier to equal him, for some- 
times it is the sword of death that gives to life its 
real knighthood, and too often the soldier's end is 
unworthy of his knightly life; but with Gordon the 
harmony of life and death was complete, and the 
closing scenes seem to move to their fulfilment in 
solemn hush, as though an unseen power watched 
over the sequence of their sorrow."* 

When the news of the tragedy, which was the di- 
rect result of their policy and procrastination, 
reached the British Government they were dismayed. 
Mr. Gladstone passed from one extreme to the other; 

*IAfe of Gordon by Sir William Butler. 



232 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

from non-intervention to a policy of conquest. Tlie 
Mahdi was to be overthrown, Osman Digna cruslied, 
a railway constructed from Suakim to Berber, the 
Soudan re-occupied. But nothing came of these high 
sounding protestations. Sir Stafford Xorthcote ex- 
pressed the feeling of the nation, and of Gordon, in 
urging that unless we were prepared to recognise our 
responsibility for Egvpt, and permanently to hold 
and govern the Soudan when it was reconquered, 
war against the Mahdi and his hordes would be a 
crime of the first magnitude. In the House of Com- 
mons the Government escaped defeat by the narrow 
majority of fourteen, 590 members taking part in 
the division : in the Lords a motion against the Minis- 
try was carried. 

The great work which Gordon had accomplished 
in the organisation and administration of the Soudan 
was undone. Slavery went on unchecked. The 
Xile was closed against commerce and civilisation. 
Egyptian rule was uprooted — at least one good re- 
sult, — the power of the Khedive was extinguished, 
his garrisons massacred, and the vast region whose 
^'^conquest and possession cost so much life and treas- 
ure lapsed back into its original darkness.'' 

Gordon had repeatedly urged that the conquest 
and retention of the Soudan were essential to the 
Government of Egypt ; that if the Soudan were aban- 
doned to the Mahdi or the Turk, the cost financially 
would be greater to Egypt, through having a con- 
quering and aggressive Mohammedan power close to 
her frontier, than the maintenance of authority over 
the provinces of the interior. Events justified these 
views. Between 1SS5 and ISO 6 Egypt was never 
free from the dread of the Mahdi. Xominally she 
was at peace, practically she was always at war. 



EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN. ' 233 

Troops of Dervish raiders hung upon her frontiers. 
Here and there the enemy were attacked and de- 
feated: but the danger remained. In 1885 by the 
battle of Ginnis the Mahdists had been driven back 
beyond the third Cataract of the Mle. Three years 
of raid and counter-raid followed. Osman Digna 
besieged Suakim and nearly captured it. He was 
put to rout by Sir Francis Grenfell. In 1889 the 
great Emir, Wad-en-Nejumi, the conqueror of Hicks, 
the captor of Khartoum, advanced with a large force 
against Egypt. At Argin he was repulsed by Col. 
Wodehouse. "E'ejumi pushed on southward, certain 
of death, certain of Paradise. At Toski Grenfell 
brought him to battle with the flower of the Egyptian 
Army. At the end of the day ^ejumi was dead and 
his army was beginning to die of thirst in the des- 
ert."* In 1891 another expedition had to be sent 
against Osman Digna, whose forces were scattered by 
Col. Holled-Smith at Afafit. But nothing short of 
the reconquest of the Soudan could bring rest and 
security to Egypt, and finally it was determined to 
undertake the task. Out of the fragments that re- 
mained of the old Turco-Egyptian Army, and out of 
the raw and not very promising native material, Brit- 
ish ofiicers had for years been working to create an 
efficient and capable fighting force. In the face of 
great difficulties they succeeded. An army of some 
18,000 men, thoroughly drilled, and equipped, com- 
manded by over 140 British officers, was ready to take 
the field. The work accomplished by Sir Evelyn 
Wood, Sir Francis Grenfell, and General Kitchener 
is justly described by Mr. Steevens as one of the high- 
est achievements of our race. In 1897 the campaign 
was begun. Its thrilling details are still fresh in all 

* With Kitchener to Khartoum by G. W. Steevens. 



234: POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

minds and need not be recited. From the first day 
to the end it was a brilliant triumph for the army led 
by General Kitchener. The battles of Atbara and 
Omdurman broke the power of the second Mahdi who 
had arisen. Success in each was complete and crush- 
ing. The Khalifa escaped and made his way to the 
south-westward, where after a time he succeeded in 
gathering together the remnant of his shattered forces. 
A final effort was made at the beginning of 1900 to 
recover his old prestige. He was met by Sir Francis 
Wingate and the whole force annihilated. The 
Mahdi himself was slain, and of all his chiefs, Os- 
man Digna alone escaped, only to be captured some 
weeks later. 

The Soudan has been reconquered. It remains for 
us to justify our action by bringing peace and protec- 
tion to the native races. Slavery has been put down 
for ever. That in itself is a great event in the his- 
tory of the political progress of these ancient and 
historic lands, where the slave hunter had held sway, 
and where oppression and violence had devastated the 
unfortunate populations for centuries. But many 
years must elapse before the Soudan can be brought 
back to the state of prosperity in which Gordon left 
it in 1880. The misrule of Kaouf Pasha, the rising 
under the Mahdi, the sixteen years that followed of 
lawlessness and turbulence, had depopulated the Sou- 
dan, and destroyed every vestige of prosperity. "It 
will recover,'' writes Mr. Steevens, "with time, no 
doubt. Only, meanwhile it will want some tending. 
. . . . The Soudan must be ruled by military law 
strong enough to be feared, administered by British 
officers just enough to be respected. It must not be 
expected it will pay until many years have passed. 
. . . . The Soudan will improve: it will never 
be an Egypt, but it will pay its way. But, before 
all things, it must be given time to repopulate itself. 



9> 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 235 



CHAPTEE XrV. 

INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN". 

The passage of the Dardanelles by the British fleet, 
without the consent of the Sultan, the bringing of 
Indian troops to Malta, the calling out of the Re- 
serves, and the active military preparations in India, 
these and the other steps taken by Lord Beaconsfield 
in 1878 to overawe Russia, led to unexpected conse- 
quences. Had the Berlin Congress failed, war 
between England and Russia would have followed. 
That it did not fail, and that the peace of Europe was 
preserved, were due to Lord Beaconsfield. We may 
not approve of some of the means by which the Prime 
Minister gained his ends, but the ends were achieved, 
and were of the utmost importance. 

Erom the beginning of the century those responsi- 
ble for the government of India had recognised that 
the steady advance of Russia in Central Asia con- 
stituted a grave danger to British supremacy. It was 
not only the possibility of a Russian invasion of 
India with which British statesmen had to concern 
themselves. That was a calamity which might occur, 
but it was one that belonged to the remote future. 
But if that calamity were to be guarded against, it 
was of the first importance that our moral and politi- 
cal ascendency should be maintained over the people 
inhabiting the country that lay between our own 



236 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

possessions and those of Russia. Might appeals mucli 
more forcibly than right to the Oriental mind. By 
centuries of suffering and experience Eastern peoples 
have learnt that the rule of an all powerful despot 
is better than the government of more benign princes 
who are unable to protect themselves and their sub- 
jects from attack. If the Afghans and the border 
tribes had to choose between alliance with England, 
or alliance with Russia, they would invariably throw 
in their lot with the power that appeared to them the 
stronger. It was, therefore, of vital importance that 
British prestige should not be lowered among the 
peoples on the North West frontier of India. To 
counteract Russian influence, to reimpress upon the 
native mind the fact that if Russia was strong, Eng- 
land was even more powerful, had been the object of 
many of our wisest statesmen in India. 

It was with these objects that we invaded Afghan- 
istan in 1838, deposed Dost Mohammed, set up Shah 
Shuja on his throne, and maintained at great cost an 
army of occupation, until in November, 1841, owing 
to a series of deplorable errors, our entire garrison 
was massacred during the appalling retreat from 
Cabul to Jellalabad. Of the 16,500 souls who 
started on that fateful march not two hundred es- 
caped alive. Lady Sale, Lady Macnaghten, and 
about 120 others remained in the hands of Akbar 
Khan, who was at the head of the revolt. One man. 
Dr. Brydon, the remnant of the army, survived to 
carry the terrible tidings to the dismayed garrison at 
Jellalabad. It had never been intended permanently 
to occupy the country. Lord Auckland had pro- 
claimed that when the Ameer's power was secured, and 
of placing the finances of Egypt upon a satisfactory 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 237 

the independence and integrity of Afghanistan estab- 
lished, the British Army would be withdrawn. 

Lord Ellenborongh who succeeded Lord Auckland 
as Governor-General of India, in February 1842, re- 
versed the policy of his predecessor. But it was first 
necessary to relieve Jellalabad, and rescue the prison- 
ers who remained in the hands of Akbar Khan. This 
was successfully done, and the army was then with- 
drawn. Dost Mohammed returned to his country 
and his throne from which he had unjustly and un- 
wisely been driven. In a Proclamation issued in 
October, 1842, Lord EUenborough stated that the 
army in possession of Afghanistan would be with- 
drawn, and it would be left ^^to the Afghans them- 
selves to create a government amidst the anarchy 
which is the consequence of their crimes. Content 
with the limits nature appears to have assigned to its 
empire, the Government of India will devote all its 
efforts to the establishment and maintenance of gen- 
eral peace, and to the protection of the sovereigns 
and chiefs, its allies." The Proclamation professed to 
explain the policy by which the Indian authorities 
would in future be guided. But political necessity 
is stronger than an artificial morality founded upon 
lofty sentiments divorced from practical facts. The 
ink with which Lord EUenborough wrote his declara- 
tion of non-intervention in the future, was scarcely 
dry, when he declared war against Sinde, which was 
under the protection of Afghanistan. "We have no 
right," wrote Sir Charles ^N'apier, who led the con- 
quering army, "to seize Sinde, yet we shall do so, and 
a very advantageous, useful, and humane piece of 
rascality it will be." That is a refreshingly frank 
sentence, worth a dozen high sounding proclamations. 



238 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

After the battle of Miani whicli made him master of 
the country, Sir Charles ISTapier telegraphed to the 
Governor-General the word: Peccavi — I have sinned, 
(Sinde). The same year Lord Ellenborough declared 
war against Gwalior, which became part of the Indian 
Empire. From 1846 to 1849 we were engaged in the 
conquest of the Punjab. 

Neither Lord Dalhousie nor Lord La^vrence found 
it possible to pursue a policy of non-intervention. In 
1855 the preliminaries of a treaty with Dost Mo- 
hammed were agreed to, and the treaty was finally 
ratified by Lord Lawrence in 1857. By this treaty 
we guaranteed to respect the Ameer's possessions in 
Afghanistan, and never to interfere with them; while 
Dost Mohammed engaged similarly to respect British 
territory, "and to be the friend of our friend, the 
enemy of our enemies." This policy not only did 
much to heal "the wounds left open from the first 
Afghan War, but it relieved England of a great 
anxiety," at the time of the Mutiny. The Ameer 
held to his engagement with us during those troublous 
days, "when, had he turned against us, we should 
assuredly have lost the Punjab." 

When the rule of India passed from the East India 
Company to the Crown, frontier difiiculties did not 
cease. During the short time that Lord Elgin lived 
to carry on the government, an expedition had to be 
sent against the AVahabis, a tribe of fanatic Moham- 
medans to the west of the Indus, amid the fastnesses 
of the outlying spurs of the Hindu Kush. At the 
beginning of 1864 Sir John Lawrence became 
Governor-General. He was a strong supporter of the 
policy of non-intervention; but one of his first acts 
was to declare war against Bhutan, a wild, unsettled 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 239 

country lying amid the Himalayas to the north of 
Assam and Bengal. The Bhutias were conquered, 
the eighteen mountain passes leading from Bengal 
and Assam, and a considerable strip of desirable 
territory, were annexed to the British possessions. 

Afghanistan had in the meantime been plunged 
into civil war by the death of Dost Mohamimed, who, 
leaving sixteen sons, appointed the third. Shore Ali, 
as his successor. This was in 1863. For five years 
the country was torn by civil war. Shore All's 
accession was opposed by four of his brothers, headed 
by Ufzul, the eldest, and his son Abdur-Rahman, a 
young man of remarkable ability. The conflict was 
a fierce and bloody one, and the result was long doubt- 
ful. Shore Ali asked for the assistance of the British 
Government. It was refused. Sir John Lawrence 
even carried his policy of non-intervention so far as 
to write during the progress of the struggle, friendly 
letters of congratulation to whichever brother happen- 
ed through a temporary advantage to gain possession 
of Cabul, Candahar, or Herat. When, in Septem- 
ber, 1868, Shore Ali established himself upon the 
throne it can be imagined that he felt little gratitude 
to the British. While the struggle had been doubt- 
ful we held aloof. Now that it was evident Shore Ali 
would win we aided him with money and arms. We 
had acted strictly within our obligations, but the im- 
pression left upon the mind of the Ameer was not a 
pleasant one. 

In 1869 Lord Mayo who had become Viceroy, met 
Shore Ali at Umbala. The Ameer was anxious to 
enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with 
Great Britain. He pressed his request with great 
energy. It was refused by Lord Mayo, who declared 



24:0 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

that althougli the Government of India declined to 
enter into any definite engagement, they would, when- 
ever they "deemed it desirable to do so," give the 
Ameer moral support, and might be willing to assist 
him with money, arms, and ammunition. It was not 
to be expected after his previous experience, and the 
experience of liis father, that Shere Ali would attach 
much value to such promises. lie was deeply dis- 
appointed; and repulsed by England he began to 
intrigue with Russia. 

During the previous twenty years Russia had been 
steadily increasing her ascendency in Central Asia, 
and advancing nearer India. Her goal to-day had 
proved her starting post on the morrow. In 1864 
Prince Gortschakoff had stated that Russia would not 
advance beyond Chimkent. But the following year 
saw the forward movement again in progress. Bok- 
hara became a feudatory of the Tzar, Samarkand was 
occupied in 1868, Khiva was conquered in 1873. 
Thus, since the Crimean War, Russia had advanced 
600 miles towards India. The events of 1868 in 
Central Asia aroused the attention of English au- 
thorities, and after persistent negotiation, in which 
Russia sought to have Afghanistan declared outside 
the pale of British influence, a neutral zone was 
agreed to in 1873 between the possessions, or spheres 
of influence, of England and Russia. Russia bound 
herself not to seek political supremacy over the 
Ameer, and not to send any mission or agents to 
Cabul. The position of Shere Ali, as was afterwards 
said by Lord Lytton, was that of an earthen pipkin 
between two iron pots. Concussion with either would 
shatter him. He renewed his request for a definite 
undertaking that the British Government would sup- 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 241 

port him against Russian aggression. It was 
refused. 

On the tragic death of Lord Mayo, who was stabbed 
by a convict while inspecting a convict settlement, in 
February, 1872, Lord Northbrook became Governor- 
General. The capture of Khiva by the Russians 
again alarmed the Ameer, who sent an envoy to the 
Viceroy asking if Afghanistan could depend upon 
British support in the event of a Russian invasion. 
In reply Lord I^orthbrook assured the Ameer that 
he had nothing to fear from Russia, and that if he 
always followed the advice of the Indian Government, 
and gave no cause of offence to Russia, the British 
would be prepared to aid him with money, supplies, 
and troops when the necessity arose. By Shere Ali 
this conditional promise was estimated at its proper 
value. Repulsed by England, he was driven into the 
arms of Russia for protection. Shortly afterwards 
the British Government in order to obtain early in- 
formation of Russian movements in Asia, urged that 
the Ameer should be asked to receive a British agent 
at Cabul. Lord E^orthbrook, who thought Russia was 
not likely to menace our I^Torth West frontier, refused 
to be a party to any attempt to force a British Em- 
bassy upon Afghanistan. The Ameer it is admitted 
had always objected to the presence of a British 
Envoy at his capital; and after the repulse of his 
friendly overtures by the Indian Government, he 
naturally objected more strongly than ever. 

Lord I^orthbrook resigned, and was succeeded by 
Lord Lytton. The British demands became more 
pressing. Events in Europe threatened to lead to a 
war between England and Russia. If war broke out 
the policy of the British Government involved using 
16 



242 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Afghanistan as a base of hostile operations against the 
Tzar. An offensive and defensive alliance with the 
Ameer was required. Such an object was not openly 
avowed; but it was the end sought to be obtained 
by sending a mission to Cabul. To discuss the de- 
mands of the Viceroy a meeting was arranged in 
January, 1877, between Sir Lewis Pelly and Saiyad 
Nur Mahommed, at Peshawar. Shere Ali's most 
trusted Minister declared that the location of British 
officers at Cabul, or in any other part of Afghanistan, 
was an impossibility: but the British demand was not 
withdrawn. 

The probability of war with England, and the 
violation of our international undertakings with re- 
gard to the Dardanelles, afforded Russia an excuse 
for ignoring her pledge not to send any mission to 
Cabul, or to interfere with British influence in 
Afghanistan. A letter was sent to Shere Ali, on 
behalf of the Tzar, by General Kauffmann demanding 
that a mission should be received at Cabul, and that 
the Imperial Envoy should be welcomed with all the 
honours of an Ambassador. In this demand Shere 
Ali and his advisers saw the fulfilment of their fears 
and their hopes; their fears of Russian aggression, 
their hopes of an alliance with Russia now that Eng- 
land had refused to guarantee the integrity of their 
territories. On the other hand the Ameer had not 
striven to bring about the Russian mission to Cabul. 
The Russian demand was the direct result of the for- 
eign policy of Lord Beaconsfield's Government. 

The day before he reached Cabul, Stolietoff was 
informed by a despatch from Kauffmann that the 
Treaty of Berlin had been signed. Kauffmann added, 
" if the news be true, it is indeed melancholy,'' 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 243 

and that ^^the envoy in his negotiations with the 
Ameer had better refrain from arranging any distinct 
measures, or making any positive promises, and 'not 
go generally as far as would have been advisable if 
war with England had been threatened.' "* Shere 
Ali believed that he was about to secure the support 
of Russia. His mind was not disabused by Stolietoff, 
who in guarded words advised him to refuse a new 
demand made by the Viceroy of India that a British 
mission should at once be received at Cabul. Delays 
occurred, and the British mission was repulsed at the 
frontier. The British Government considered further 
diplomatic expedients futile, and that the Ameer had 
deprived himself of "all claim upon our further for- 
bearance.'' War was declared. 

The campaign was of short duration. Shere Ali fled 
into Russian Turkistan, where he soon afterwards 
died. His son Yakoob Khan was recognised as 
Ameer. ByJ;he Treaty of Gandamak concluded with 
him a more scientific frontier was ceded to England; 
the Ameer agreed to receive a British Representative 
at Cabul, and to follow the advice of the British Gov- 
ernment in his relations with other States. In return 
he was to receive a subsidy of £60,000 a year, and was 
guaranteed the support of Great Britain against any 
foreign enemy. The Treaty was signed on the 25th 
of May, 1879, and Sir Louis Cavagnari took up his 
position as the first Resident at Cabul. On the 3rd of 
September a revolt broke out in the city, and the Brit- 
ish Envoy and nearly all his suite were massacred. 
Another British expedition under the command of 
General Roberts followed, and after severe fighting 
re-occupied Cabul. 

*Forty-One Years in India by Field-Marshal Lord Roberts 
of Kandahar, Vol. II, p. 111. 



244 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

A time of great anxiety followed. The British 
force was only seven thousand strong, with twenty 
guns. An attempt to advance upon Ghazni was 
defeated. The wild tribesmen, magnificent fighters, 
began to assemble about Cabul. Keinforcements 
poured in every day. On the 23rd of December, 1879, 
a fierce attack was made by 30,000 Afghans. The 
fight was long and stubborn. When it had ended the 
Afghan force had been repulsed with great slaughter, 
and scattered in all directions. 

Afghanistan continued to be occupied by British 
troops. In July, 1880, Abdur-Rahman, a grandson 
of Dost Mohammed, was recognised as Ameer. But 
peace had not yet been restored. Ayoob Khan, a 
brother of the deposed Ameer, was in rebellion; and 
was supported by a large force. Advancing from 
Herat to Candahar he encountered a brigade under 
General Burrows, on July 27th. The British force 
numbered 2,476 men, the Afghan 25,000. Our 
troops were outflanked, and "completely routed, and 
had to thank the apathy of the Afghans in not follow- 
ing them up for escaping total annihilation." Of the 
British troops engaged 934 were killed, and 175 
wounded and missing. 

The news of the British disaster produced excite- 
ment throughout Afghanistan and India. It was of 
supreme importance that the reverse should be re- 
trieved, and Candahar relieved without delay. Gen- 
eral Roberts offered to undertake the task from Cabul, 
and his offer was accepted. On the 9th of August, at 
the head of 2,835 European, and 7,165 native troops, 
he started on a march which is one of the great feats 
in military history. In twenty days 303 miles were 
covered, and on the 1st of September Ayoob Khan's 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 245 

army was routed, and all his guns captured. Six 
montlis later all British troops had been withdrawn 
from Afghanistan, Abdur-Rahman was securely estab- 
lished upon his throne, and a new era began for the 
country. 

In the foregoing pages an endeavour has been made 
to give an impartial account of the events which led 
up to the establishment of what practically amounts 
to a British protectorate over Afghanistan. It will be 
seen that the policy which formerly guided our states- 
men has been completely reversed during the past 
twenty-two years. It is not surprising that in its 
earlier stages the policy initiated by Lord Beacons- 
field's Government should have been denounced with 
vehemence. 

Mr. Gladstone in a powerful indictment of the 
Government, pointed out that the causes of the Af- 
ghan War lay in the reversal of a policy which had re- 
ceived the sanction of a number of successive Vice- 
roys from Lord Ellenborough to Lord Mayo, who had 
laid it down as a fundamental principle that we were 
to leave the Afghan people and the Hill tribes of the 
^orth West frontier in undisputed possession of their 
territories. ^^What had been the conduct of the 
Government to the late Ameer, Shere Ali ? We were 
bound to him by the treaty made in 1857 by Sir John 
Lawrence, and our obligation had been recognised 
by every Viceroy down to Lord N^orthbrook, not to 
force upon him the reception of British Envoys of 
European birth." It had been asserted that we had 
made war upon the Ameer because he ^^received the 
Russian Mission at Cabul with great pomp." "Why 
did he receive the Russian Mission? Because the 
Russian Government, as a measure of hostility to us, 



246 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

sent word to the Ameer that he must receive their 
Embassy. It was impossible for the Ameer to resist. 
He received that Embassy under compulsion, and 
therefore he did no wrong. But supposing he had 
done wrong, which was the greater offender — the 
feeble Ameer who received the Embassy of Russia 
because he could not help it, or the great white Tzar, 
the Emperor of all the Russias, who forced him to 
receive that Embassy? And what was our conduct? 
We had heard much about a vigorous foreign policy, 
and a spirited foreign policy. A meaner act, a 
shabbier act, a more dastardly act, is not to be found 
upon record than that by which this Government, 
forbearing to punish Russia, forbearing even to 
remonstrate with Russia — that is to say, accepting 
from Russia the most feeble and transparent excuses 
with an ostensible satisfaction, reserved all its force 
and all its vengeance for the unfortunate Ameer of 
Afghanistan.''* 

Lord Beaconsfield in defending the action of the 
Government dwelt upon the unsatisfactory condition 
of our Xorth West frontier. He said: "We have 
been in possession of this boundary for twenty-eight 
years. During that period we have been obliged to 
fit out nineteen considerable expeditions to control 
its inhabitants, between fifty and sixty guerilla enter- 
prises, and have employed upon these expeditions 
between 50,000 and 60,000 of Her Majesty's troops. 
.... Remembering the possibility of some Power 
equal to our own attacking us in that part of the 
world, and remembering also that some ten years ago 
that Power was 2,000 miles distant from our boun- 

*Mr. Gladstone at Glasg-ow, Dec. 5th, 1879. 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 347 

daries, a man might consistently have upheld the 
arrangement that then existed, and yet might by the 
force of circumstances, and the lapse of time, be now 
a sincere supporter of the policy which Her Majesty^s 

Government recommends It has been 

said that I stated the object of the war to be the sub- 
stitution of a scientific for a haphazard frontier. I 
never said that was the object of the war. I treated 
it as a possible consequence of the war, which is a 
very different thing. Our application to the Ameer 
was, in fact, founded upon the principle of rectifying 
our frontier without any disturbance of territory 
whatever. What was our difficulty with regard to 
Afghanistan ? We could gain no information as to 
what was going on beyond the mountain ranges. 
What we wanted, therefore, were eyes to see and ears 
to hear, and we should have attained our object had 
the Ameer made to us those concessions which are 
commonly granted by all civilised States, and which 
even some Oriental States do not deny us, namely, 
to have a minister at his capital (a demand which we 
did not press), and men like our consuls-general at 
some of his chief towns. That virtually would have 
been a rectification of our frontier. Eight months 
ago war was more than probable between this coun- 
try and Russia, and a word might have precipitated it. 
When it was found out that war was not to be made, 
Her Majesty's Government made courteous repre- 
sentations to St. Petersburg, and it was impossible 
that anything could be more frank and satisfactory 
than the manner in which they were met. But it is 
totally impossible for us, after all that has occurred, 
to leave things as they were I have re- 
ceived a communication from Lord Napier of Mag- 



248 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

dala, who says ^Afghanistan, if in the hands of a 
hostile Power, may at any time deal a fatal blow to our 
Empire. We cannot remain on the defensive without 
a ruinous drain on our resources. Our frontier is 
weak; an advanced position is necessary for our 
safety.' When I am told that no military authority 
justifies Her Majesty's Government, I can appeal with 
confidence to one who, I believe, must rank among 
the very highest military authorities.''* 

The extracts from these speeches by Mr. Glad- 
stone and Lord Beaconsfield present the two views 
taken of our policy at the time. We fear that many 
of our dealings with Afghanistan are indefensible on 
the grounds of political morality. Other lines of 
defence must be sought, and we believe they may be 
found in the necessity of protecting our Indian Em- 
pire, and the results that have followed the extension 
of our sphere of influence. To those who agree with 
the Duke of Argyll in thinking that to take precau- 
tions against Russian aggression in India is to indulge 
in "unmanly fears of imaginary dangers," our policy 
in Afghanistan must appear the reverse of political 
progress. But the weight of evidence is against them. 
By our military authorities, and by those who are best 
fitted by experience, and practical knowledge of the 
races we govern in India, to form an opinion, Russian 
aggression, and Russian influence are very far from 
being regarded as imaginary dangers. In judging 
this question the magnitude of the issues at stake must 
not be lost sight of. Another mutiny in India would 
be a great calamity; the overthrow of British rule 
there, would endanger the safety of the whole British 

*Lord Beaconsfield, House of Lords, December, 10th, 

1878. 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 249 

Empire, and lead to results wluch miglit bring dis- 
aster and misery upon many hundred millions of 
innocent people. 

Abdur-Rahman has fully justified bis cboice by tbe 
British Government as Ameer of Afghanistan. When 
he was placed on the throne the Afghans were a col- 
lection of wild tribes having little or nothing in 
common politically, and bound together only by the 
ties of a common race, speech, and religion. Abdur- 
Kahman set himself to create a nation out of these 
elements. His reign has not been without its diffi- 
culties, but in spite of these it has been a singularly 
successful one. He has done much to weld the 
different tribes together, to create a national spirit, 
and to fuse the conflicting interests of the clansmen 
into a common nationality. Great improvements 
have been made in the administration of the country, 
lawlessness has been checked, authority strengthened, 
and aided by experienced Englishmen invited to Cabul 
to act as his advisers, the Ameer has been able 
to effect many notable reforms. Under the superin- 
tendence of Mr. Salter Payne extensive workshops 
have been established at Cabul, where almost every- 
thing requisite to meet the daily wants of the popula- 
tion is manufactured. "The effect of all this," Mr. 
Salter Payne says, "upon the future of Afghanistan 
cannot be overrated. The Ameer never expects any 
pecuniary profit from these works. His one object 
is to civilise and refine his fanatical masses. The 
Afghanistan of thirteen years ago, (1880) when 
Abdur-Rahman succeeded to the throne, is as totally 
different from the Afghanistan of to-day, as the 
Afghanistan of to-day will be different from the 



250 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Afglianistan of ten years hence, if the Ameer is 
spared to rule over it." 

During 1884-5 Russian aggTession on the frontiers 
of Afghanistan threatened to lead to serious results. 
Negotiations were opened, but while they were pro- 
ceeding the Russian troops, on April 9th, 1885, at- 
tacked the Afghans holding Penjdeh, and totally 
routed them, killing over 500. "War between Eng- 
land and Russia seemed inevitable. Mr. Gladstone, 
who declared that "the open book would not be closed'^ 
until the honour of England had been satisfied, asked 
for a special vote of credit of eleven millions, which 
was immediatelv m'anted bv Parliament. At this 
critical juncture the Ameer, who had gone to meet 
the Viceroy of India, Lord Dufferin, at Rawul Pindi, 
withdrew his claim to the Penjdeh district, his right to 
Zarfikar being recognised in exchange ; and the follow- 
ing month ^Ir, Gladstone was able to announce that 
all impediments to a friendly correspondence A\4th 
Russia had been removed. 

In 1894 a rearran2:ement of the frontier between 
British India and Afghanistan was made with the 
Ameer by Sir Mortimer Durand. The sphere of 
British influence was largely increased, and the new 
frontier obtained was of great importance from a mili- 
tary point of view. The control of all approaches to 
India on the South-East side of the Pamirs, of all 
the passes over the Hindu-Kush and Lahori ranges, 
of all the districts from Chitral to Baluchistan, is now 
in British hands. In return for the concessions 
granted us the Ameer was permitted to import arms 
from India, and the amount of his subsidy was raised 
from £75,000 to £112,000 a year. 

Since the administration of India passed from the 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 251 

old East India Company to tlie British Crown, the 
country has made remarkable progress, both politically 
and materially. The day is far distant, it may possi- 
bly never dawn, when we can apply in oTir dealings 
with this great group of Oriental peoples, the methods 
of self-government which are inseparable from the 
political and material growth of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
But does political progress necessarily depend upon 
the adoption of democratic forms of government? 
Before the question can be answered, it is necessary to 
define what is meant by political progress. Is it a 
means to an end? Or is the end, as some writers 
appear to suggest, of less importance than the means? 
Upon the answer to these questions depends the 
verdict as to whether our policy in Egypt, in 
Afghanistan, and in India, making due allowance for 
the mistakes and failures inseparable from human 
effort, has promoted political progress, or has inter- 
posed barriers to its advance. To our mind the an- 
swer is obvious. Parliaments, universal suffrage, a 
free press, government of the people, by the people, 
for the people, are no doubt the only lines upon which 
political progress can proceed among the English- 
speaking peoples, European nations, and other en- 
lightened races. But these institutions, which cen- 
turies of experience and effort have proved to be the 
best adapted to secure the welfare of certain races, 
are only means to an end. We value the institutions 
because they secure the greatest happiness of the 
greatest number. Should they ever cease to ac- 
complish the great purposes for which they have 
been devised, they will be numbered among the worn 
out creeds, the exploded fallacies, the shattered insti- 
tutions, which civilisation has scattered behind it in 



252 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

its triumphant inarch to the realisation of the high 
ideals towards which humanity steadily presses. 
It is not institutions we value, it is not democ- 
racy we worship; it is the results we obtain from the 
one through the profound instincts that guide the 
other. As long as we enjoy the substantial results 
which political progress has achieved for the world, 
we need not enter a bigoted protest because, under 
entirely different circumstances than obtain amongst 
us, those results are produced elsewhere by methods 
we have long abandoned, by a system of government 
we have outgrown, by a denial of political privileges 
we enjoy as individuals, and have learnt to exercise as 
a trust. Wherever British rule prevails, or British 
influence preponderates, the material, if not the senti- 
mental, results of democratic political progress are 
gradually being extended to the people. 

In Imperial as in individual affairs it is dangerous 
to allow our judgment to be obscured by sentiment. 
But unfortunately some of the recent rulers of our 
Indian Empire have not recognised the importance of 
this simple maxim. They have attemp'ted to extend 
to the peoples of India, who differ in race, language, 
religion, and physical characteristics, democratic forms 
of government which can only be exercised with safety 
by enlightened nations united by the common ties of 
blood, speech, creed, and aspiration. The Indian 
natives have not yet emerged from the condition of 
ignorance which prevailed among the English 
peasantry in the Middle Ages. Of the two hun- 
dred and eighty-seven millions of peoples we govern 
in India, only 109 males, and 6 females, out of every 
thousand, are able to read and write. What this 
means may be learnt by contrast. The negroes of the 
United States are enlightened by comparison. Of 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 253 

that coloured population 245 males and 217 females 
out of every thousand can read and write: and if we 
pushed the inquiry further we should discover other 
important differences, of environment and creed, 
which would all be in favour of the blacks of the 
United States. 

In the opinion of men who have spent the best 
years of their lives in India, many of the innovations 
made by Lord Eipon during the years he was Viceroy, 
were premature, and have not been conducive to the 
interests of the country. The extension of the 
criminal Jurisdiction to Native Civil Servants of the 
grade of District Magistrates, has remedied no evil, 
removed no grievance, but created many difficulties. 
Even more objectionable was the removal of the re- 
strictions which Lord Lytton had placed upon the free- 
dom of the vernacular press. ^^In India the Native 
press is an exotic which, under existing conditions, sup- 
plies no general want, does nothing to refine, elevate, 
or instruct the people, and is used by its supporters and 
promoters — an infinitesimal part of the population — 
as a means of gaining its selfish ends, and of fostering 
sedition, and racial and religious animosities. 
.... We gain neither credit nor gratitude for 
our tolerant attitude towards the Native press. Our 
forbearance is misunderstood; and while the well dis- 
posed are amazed at our inaction, the disaffected re- 
joice at being allowed to promulgate baseless insinua- 
tions and misstatements which undermine our author- 
ity, and thwart our efforts to gain the goodwill and 
confidence of the Native population.''* 

Those who understand the feelings and prejudices of 
Asiatics, and who from long experience in the East 

*Forty-One Tears in India, by Field-Marshal Lord Roberts 
Kandahar. 



254 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

are most competent to form an opinion on the policy 
that should be applied to the government of India, 
consider it is a dangerous experiment to attempt to 
force Western methods of self-government upon 
races so absolutely different from ourselves in en- 
lightenment, tradition, and customs. Lord Roberts 
points out that while our position since the Mutiny 
has been materially strengthened, signs are not want- 
ing that the spirit of unrest and discontent may easily 
be revived. The introduction of foreign ideas which 
the natives do not understand, and view with suspicion, 
needs to be carried on with great caution and circum- 
spection. ^^The Government of India should, no 
doubt, be progressive in its policy, and in all things 
be guided by the immutable principles of right, truth, 
and justice; but these principles ought to be applied, 
not necessarily as we should apply them in England, 
but with due regard to the social peculiarities, and 
religious prejudices of the people, whom it ought to 
be our aim to make better and happier.''* 

The machinery by which we sway the destinies of 
the 287,000,000 of people under our control in India 
is very simple. The King- Emperor is represented 
by the Viceroy, who has associated with him a Legis- 
lative Council dealing with all Imperial matters. 
Local Legislative Councils sit at Calcutta, Madras and 
Bombay. Of the first the Viceroy is the Governor- 
General, the last two are guided by separate Governors 
aided by Executive Councils. The members of all 
these Councils are appointed by Government, and are 
not elected. Under the control of these heads of the 
Empire there are numerous Lieutenant-Governors, 

^Forty-One Years in Indian by Lord Roberts, Vol. I, 
p. 448. 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 256 

Chief Commissioners, and Resident and Political 
Agents, throughout the vast territories. The army 
has a strength of about a quarter of a million men. 
Of these some 74,000 are British, and 146,000 Native 
troops. In addition E^ative reserves number some 
14,000, Volunteers some 26,000, with some 20,000 
"contingents from feudatory states, organised and 
trained by British officers." 

In addition to the population over whom we exer- 
cise direct rule, there are some three hundred ITative 
States, great and small, who are under the protection 
of the British Crown. These states are divided into 
three distinct classes — the allied, the tributary, and 
the protected. "The allied are provided by the Brit- 
ish Government with a regular contingency of sub- 
sidiary troops, for which a fixed charge is made. These 
represent a total population of over twenty-five mil- 
lions. In the tributary states the Government main- 
tains no regular troops, but undertakes to defend 
them from any possible attacks from without, re- 
ceiving in return a regular tribute. Of such states 
there are about fifty, with some fifteen million in- 
habitants. The protected states, exempt from tribute, 
stand in the same relation to the supreme authority, 
and number upwards of ninety, with a joint popula- 
tion of perhaps twenty-six millions. All three have 
renounced the right of self-defence, and of inde- 
pendent diplomatic representation abroad, England 
guaranteeing them from attack, and acting as media- 
tor in all the differences arising among them. The 
English Government moreover reserves to itself the 
right of interfering in the internal administration 
whenever the native rulers become the oppressors, 
instead of the protectors, of their subjects."* 

*Asia by A. H. Keane, Vol. II. 



256 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Since the Crown took over the administration of 
India the country has been in many ways transformed. 
Over twenty-two thousand miles of railway have been 
constructed; communication has been opened up by 
the provision of highways; the country is now inter- 
sected by many canals, and covered by a network of 
telegraph lines. These and other great public works 
have largely increased the area of land under cultiva- 
tion, minimised the risk of famine, equalised the 
prices of agricultural produce, developed a large and 
lucrative export trade, led to the establishment of 
many prosperous jute, cotton, sugar, and other fac- 
tories, the opening of coal mines, and the further de- 
velopment of tea and coffee plantations. The estab- 
lishment of the system of ci\dl and criminal justice, 
the assessment of the land tax for long terms of years, 
the recognition of proprietary right in the land, the 
founding of schools, universities, medical colleges, 
and other institutions to encourage primary, second- 
ary, and higher education, and the study of technical 
and scientific branches of knowledge, have largely 
contributed to the moral and material prosperity of 
the people. An attempt has also been begun to ex- 
tend education to the women of India. Though 
efforts in this direction have to be made with great 
caution, and many obstacles have to be overcome, the 
movement is slowly progressing, and in course of time 
must be attended with results of great importance. 
Under our rule the more cruel religious rites which 
were formerly common have been put down. Suttee 
among the Hindus has practically ceased to exist, and 
human sacrifice, and other savage customs among the 
wild hill tribes have been largely suppressed. 

But the two great problems with which the Govern- 
ment has been concerned, since the administration of 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 257 

India passed under the Crown, are the consolidation 
and protection of the Empire, and the mitigation of 
famines. Of these problems the latter presents many- 
difficulties. From time immemorial famine and 
pestilences that follow times of scarcity have dev- 
astated many quarters of the earth. Owing to 
climate, congestion of population, and religious pre- 
judices, parts of India are particularly liable to these 
calamities. To prevent famines is impossible; they 
are the result of causes beyond the control of human 
agency. But to a limited degree the evils of a pro- 
longed drought can be mitigated, and its disastrous 
results avoided. To enable them to grapple success- 
fully with the enormous difficulties they are con- 
stantly called upon to face, the Government have kept 
three objects in view : — (1) to increase irrigation, con- 
serve the water supply, and regulate its distribution 
in districts subject to droughts; (2) to improvemeans 
of transport so that large supplies of food may readily 
be sent from regions of abundance to districts where 
the crops have failed, and to encourage more efficient 
methods of agriculture ; (3) and in times of famine by 
means of Government works, and a free distribution 
of food, to prevent the sacrifice of human life. In 
all three directions great results have been obtained. 
The attention of the authorities to the necessity of 
taking steps to guard against the calamities that follow 
drought, was aroused in 1866 by the terrible sufferings 
of the Natives in the Orissa and Ganjam districts of 
Bengal. These districts are among the most pro- 
ductive in India. Even at that period they were not 
isolated and inaccessible ; and there would have been 
little difficulty in supplying the people with an abund- 
ance of food. But the district officials were in- 
experienced, and ignored the warnings they received, 
17 



258 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

and in May, 1866, Sir John Lawrence suddenly re- 
ceived news tliat thousands of natives were daily 
dying from starvation. Over a million persons per- 
ished. To add to the horrors of the situation the period 
of drought was followed by a period of unusually 
heavy rains, which caused the Mahanadi River to flood 
a district of over a thousand square miles, driving a 
million and a quarter of people from their homes. 

Sir John Lawrence recognised the magnitude of 
the evil and the duties of the Government. He 
warned district officers throughout the country that in 
future they would be held personally responsible for 
any loss of life in time of famine, that could have 
been prevented by foresight and organisation. He 
established a Department of Irrigation, carried out a 
number of useful works, and had plans drawn up for 
the construction of canals, and other means for pro- 
tecting districts from the consequences of drought or 
flood, estimated to cost within ten years over thirty 
millions sterling. In less than five years 1,556 miles 
of railways were built to establish communication with 
isolated districts. 

The work begun by Sir John Lawrence has been 
carried on vdih unremitting zeal ever since. All the 
skill and resources of Western civilisation have been 
employed to devise means for preventing, or alleviat- 
ing the sufferings of the native races. Great 
engineering works have been carried out for distribu- 
ting the water of reservoirs, and the surplus water of 
rivers to tracts which can be artificially irrigated. 
Many famines have occurred since 1866 but their 
results have been greatly lessened by the efforts of 
Government. Two years after the wise precautions 
for guarding against the evils of famine were estab- 
lished by Sir John Lawrence, a serious disaster was 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 259 

averted in Oudh througli tlie energy of tlie district 
officers, while in the adjoined native states half a 
million of people perished. In 1873 there was a 
partial failure of the rice crop in Behar, in iTorth- 
Western Bengal. The authorities fully alive to their 
duties took energetic measures. The expenses of the 
Government amounted to six and a half millions sterl- 
ing, while private subscriptions yielded £280,000, 
large donations being received from all parts of the 
British Empire. 

Scarcely had this great work been completed than 
the Government had to make similar efforts in the 
Deccan in Southern India, and in 1877 over -^yq 
millions sterling were spent in public relief works. 
The famine of 1896-7 in Upper India was one of un- 
precedented magnitude. But the relief organisation 
was equal to all demands. The Queen from the 
beginning of the disaster had taken the warmest in- 
terest in the relief of the sufferers. Sympathy was 
aroused throughout the Empire; a Mansion House 
Fund was opened by the Lord Mayor of London, and 
several E'ative Princes placed large sums of money 
at the disposal of the Viceroy. Irrigation, railway, 
and other relief works were started in all the affected 
districts by the Indian Government. When the 
Mansion House Belief Eund was closed it amounted 
to nearly £550,000. Contributions in money, grain 
and clothing were sent from all parts of the Empire, 
from the United States and from other countries, the 
total voluntary subscriptions amounting to £1,- 
750,000. 

The last year of the century witnessed another 
famine equally disastrous. An area embracing a 
population of sixty-two millions was affected, and the 
number of persons employed upon relief works at 



260 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

times was not far short of five millions. In grappling 
with the task of relieving the distress and suffering 
caused bj this calamity the Indian Government showed 
great energy; and were nobly aided by the public 
throughout the Empire. The great demands made by 
the war in South Africa upon public generosity, did 
not prevent a practical demonstration of sympathy with 
the unfortunate sufferers in India. A Relief Fund 
was opened at the Mansion House, and in response 
to the appeal of the Lord Mayor £140,000 was sub- 
scribed within a month, and further donations con- 
tinued to be received daily. Speaking at Calcutta on 
March 28th the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, gave a vivid 
idea of the sufferings of the people and of the immense 
losses of agricultural wealth caused by the drought. 
He thanked the Lord Mayors of London and other 
towns for the patriotic readiness with which they 
had inaugurated relief funds, and also the generous 
British public who had responded so splendidly to the 
appeal. Further, there were included in India's 
thanks the British colonies in both hemispheres whose 
union with the mother country and her great Asiatic 
dependency, whether for the purpose of conducting 
the war or alleviating the sufferings of the masses, 
struck a harmonious resounding note at the dawn of 
a new century, which would re-echo throughout the 
world. Beferring to the death-rate as a test of the 
efficiency of famine relief, the Viceroy said the 
mortality in the stricken provinces of British India 
was scarcely at all in excess of the normal death-rate. 
The consolidation of the power of British rule in 
India has been a work of great magnitude. Step by 
step the task has been carried forward until we have 
built up a united empire, with a scientific and 
strongly defended frontier, which it would be 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 261 

dangerous for any Power to attack. The steady 
advance of Russia in Asia, and the necessity of 
counteracting Russian influence upon the native mind, 
have forced British statesmen to undertake in the 
interest of the welfare of the Empire many arduous 
tasks which otherwise might have remained outside 
the bounds of national obligation. With these causes 
nearly all our Indian wars are more or less closely 
connected. The Afghan, Beeloch, Sikh, and Gwal- 
ior wars, the measures taken after the Mutiny, the 
annexation of Burma by Lord DufPerin in 1886, the 
Chitral and many other small wars on the frontier, 
were all due to the same wise and far-sighted policy, 
which recognised that if our rule over India is to be 
an abiding one, it must be not less strong than it is 
just. With the same object the Government of India 
has spent upwards of seventy millions sterling in 
rendering the various passes of the E^orth West 
frontier impregnable ; while the annual expenditure 
upon frontier fortifications is a heavy drain upon the 
finances of the country. 

In preparing the nation to meet its increasing re- 
sponsibilities in India few men have accomplished 
more important work than Lord Roberts, whose ser- 
vices as a member of the Defence Committee led to 
momentous results. Up to that time greater stress had 
been placed upon the necessity for constructing numer- 
ous fortifications along the frontier, than upon lines 
of communication. Lord Roberts was the first to insist 
that it was a matter of vital importance we should 
possess means of bringing all the strategical points on 
the frontier into direct communication with the rail- 
way system of India, so that troops could be rapidly 
conveyed wherever needed. He embodied his 
conclusions in a memorandum, in which he said. 



262 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY, 

"I would piisli on our communications with all possi- 
ble speed; we must have roads, and we must have 
railways; they cannot be made on short notice, and 
every rupee spent upon them now will repay us ten- 
fold hereafter. Nothing will tend to secure the 
safety of the frontier so much as the power of rapidly 
concentrating troops on any threatened point, and 
nothing will strengthen our military position more 
than to open out the country and improve our rela- 
tions with the frontier tribes. There are no better 
civilizei's than roads and railways; and although some 
of those recommended to be made may never be re- 
quired for military purposes, they will be of the 
greatest assistance to the civil power in the administra- 
tion of the country."* These recommendations were 
adopted, and the day is now not far distant when 
India will be in a thoroughly satisfactory state of 
defence. 

In 1875-6 the Prince of Wales visited India, and 
was received with an outburst of emotional loyalty 
that showed ^'how deep down in the hearts of the 
people still lay their devotion to the ideal of a feudal 
sovereignty." The visit was undoubtedly of great 
importance in bringing home to the minds of the 
teeming millions of natives we govern, the power and 
reality of the British Crown. On the 1st of January, 
1877, the Queen amidst circumstances of becoming 
pomp and splendour Avas proclaimed Empress of India, 
an event which caused general rejoicing all over the 
country, in l^ative States as well as British canton- 
ments. By heredity an Oriental, no one knew better 
than Lord Beaconsfield how to touch the imagina- 
tion and stir the feelings of Eastern peoples. He 

*Forty-One Tears in India by Lord Roberts. 



INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 263 

possessed by intuition the knowledge and insight of 
native character which is only acquired by English- 
men by years of practical experience and patient 
observation. It was this fine insight which led him 
at the time of the Russo-Turkish war to warn the 
nation that in our dealings with Mohammedan Turkey 
it would not be wise totally to ignore the feelings 
and susceptibilities of millions of British subjects in 
India. This was a point that had been lost sight of, 
and Lord Beaconsfield's sagacious reminder that we 
are the greatest Mohammedan Power of the world, 
came with surprise upon the British masses. The 
Mohammedans over whom we rule in India, are very 
far from regarding British policy in Turkey with in- 
difference. The Sultan is looked up to as the legiti- 
mate representative of the Prophet, and the Ottoman 
Empire as the chief seat of their religion. For these 
and other reasons the Indian Mohammedans were re- 
garded as an element, if not of danger, at least of 
anxiety, by the central government. Chiefly Sunnis, 
with an influential Shiah minority, the Indian Mo- 
hammedans are concentrated in Bengal, the North- 
West Provinces, and the Punjab, and numbered in 
1891 over 57,000,000, or 19 per cent of the whole 
population; so that the Emperor of India rules over 
far more Mussulman subjects than any other sovereign 
in the East. The Lieutenant-General of Bengal alone 
^^has in his jurisdiction as many millions of Moslems 
as the Sultan of Turkey, and thrice as many as the 
Shah of Persia." 

The sixtieth anniversary of the Queen's reign was 
celebrated throughout India by public rejoicings, and 
demonstrations which evinced the sincerity and loyalty 
of Native feeling to the great Empress. A gracious 
message from Her Majesty still further increased the 



264 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

enthusiasm. At Gwalior the Diamond Jubilee created 
the greatest rejoicings. The Maharajah announced 
the remission of 60 lakhs of revenue, and the release 
of 10 per cent of the prisoners. At Simla the Viceroy 
received numerous addresses for presentation to the 
Queen, and in the course of his speech said that Her 
Majesty's strength all through the sixty years of her 
reign, had come from her being actuated by two good 
principles — love of her people, and the conscientious 
performance of duty. Detachments of Imperial Serv- 
ice troops sent by the native Indian Princes took a 
conspicuous part in the jubilee festivities in London. 



RTJSSIA: JAPAN. 265 



CHAPTEE.XV. 



eussia: japan. 



The century has witnessed a great awakening of 
intellectual life in Russia. In literature, in the Arts, 
in politics, movements have sprung up that have al- 
ready led to important results, and promise to exer- 
cise a profound influence upon the future of the 
country. From a condition of mental stagnation, 
and an attitude of resignation or stolid indifference 
to the degraded state of the mass of the people, a 
large section of the intellectual classes have been 
aroused by echoes of the trumpet voice of liberty 
which has resounded throughout the civilised world. 
Apathy has given place to interest; contentment 
under a political system of grievous wrong and op- 
pression has been superseded by the unrest, and agi- 
tation, which neither the tortures of Russian prisons, 
nor the terrible sufferings of exile to Siberia, have 
been able to allay. The instincts of freedom and 
justice are stronger than despotic governments. 
Persecution has never yet succeeded in trampling out 
the higher aspirations of mankind; and when the 
existence of a government can only be secured against 
the onslaughts of public opinion by a resort to cruelty 
and oppression, we may be certain that the day is at 
hand^ and that the long darkness of centuries has 
begun to roll away. 

Political progress in Russia is still only a sentiment 



266 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

— but it is a powerful and a growing sentiment from 
which we have much to hope. Under its pressure 
feudal institutions are tottering to their fall. Their 
final overthrow will no doubt be a matter of time. 
A generation, even a century, is but a short period 
in the life of any nation ; it is a shorter period in Rus- 
sia than in any other country. Throughout the vast 
domains of the Tzar freedom wages a threefold fight 
against despotism, ignorance, and superstition. The 
"Middle Ages," and all that the phrase implies, still 
exist in Russia. Between the privileged few and the 
mass of the people, there is a great gulf, bridged by 
no intermediate classes able to profit by the efforts 
of enlightened leaders of thought. The peasant is 
steeped in ignorance to the very lips; and his igno- 
rance is entrenched behind a wall of gross supersti- 
tion. He is the product of centuries of oppression and 
degradation. He regards his wrongs with stolid in- 
difference, or bears them with the resignation of de- 
spair. Between the Tzar and the priest on the one 
hand, the large landowners, the money-lenders, and 
the Mir, on the other, his existence is so hemmed in 
as to stifle every aspiration, and paralyse every effort 
to break the bonds of a degrading environment. In 
the subdivision of the population 81.6 per cent of the 
people belong to the peasant order. The nobility 
represent 1.3 per cent; the military 6.1; the clergy 
0.9; the merchants, or trading classes, 9.3; the re- 
mainder being unclassified. In other words the mid- 
dle classes in Russia are as insignificant in number as 
they are inferior in intelligence when compared with 
the middle classes of any other great nation, not even 
excepting the Chinese. It is this fact which renders 
the task of reform in Russia so difficult, and enables 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 267 

the Government to resist snccessf nlly the demands of 
the friends of political progress. 

A strange spectacle is presented by the movement 
which began in 1860. A large section, perhaps a 
majority, of the privileged classes, the educated, 
wealthy, refined, intellectual section of the nation, 
demand in the name of the whole people, education, 
liberty, progress, — deliverance from the terrors of 
the administrative system which exiles over 2,000 
hapless human beings every year to Siberia, crowds 
the gaols to overflowing with others, and inflicts 
upon persons guilty of no crime, but that of hold- 
ing opinions common to every English speaking 
person throughout the world, the horrors of the 
knout and solitary imprisonment for life. Every de- 
mand for reform, every effort to spread knowledge, 
every attempt to promote education, every proposal 
to ameliorate and improve the condition of the 
masses, is refused, is thwarted, is condemned, is pun- 
ished by an all-powerful autocratic administrative 
despotism, wielded under the Tzar by Councils, gov- 
ernors, and a small army of corrupt officials, nearly 
all of whom are also drawn from the privileged and 
educated classes. It is a house divided against it- 
self. On the one side is everything that is best and 
noblest in intellectual Russia; on the other are mem- 
bers of the same classes fighting with grim fierceness 
and ferocity that at times have sent a thrill of horror 
throughout civilisation, for the maintenance of sel- 
fish privileges, class rights, feudal institutions, and 
the preservation of an absolute monarchy. And this 
tremendous force, so potent for oppression, so over- 
whelming in resource, so ominous to the peace and 
progress of the whole world, is founded upon the 
devotion, the loyalty, the superstition, and the ignor- 



268 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURA. 

ance, of tens of millions of peasants, who are still 
little better than serfs. There was a period in Eng- 
lish history when the despotism of government was 
curbed by the nobles, who wrung from reluctant 
monarchs concessions for their own order and for the 
whole people. That was the beginning of the move- 
ment which pursued step by step, through long cen- 
turies, brought doAvnward to the people justice, pros- 
perity, enlightenment, and finally the control of 
power. To-day Russia stands on the threshold of 
revolt against an absolute despotism. She occupies 
the position which England quitted centuries ago. 
But there is this important difference between the 
conditions of the two countries. In England the 
educated classes were united in the resistance of 
despotism ; in Russia they are divided, and on the side 
of the monarchy is arrayed an army of administra- 
tive officials, whose existence, salaries, and oppor- 
tunities for peculation, depend upon the maintenance 
of one of the most stupendous systems of oppression 
the world has ever seen. These are the conflicting 
forces now at work in the Russian Empire, and in the 
long run there can be no doubt on which side victory 
will lie. 

The liberation of the serfs in 1861 was an impor- 
tant step in political progress, not only because it 
delivered twenty-three millions of people from an 
oppressive bondage, but because it stimulated the de- 
mand for reform, diverted a share of the intellectual 
movement throughout the country from literature 
and art into political channels, and was followed by 
a period of great material and commercial expansion. 
Serfdom was not an ancient system in Russia. It 
only sprang up in the sixteenth century, and was 
established by law in 1609. Even under the best 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 269 

landlords the yoke of the serfs was a hard one to 
bear; under the majority of their owners the serfs 
led a terrible existence. Cruelty and suffering have 
left their marks upon the Eussian peasantry. Their 
apathy to everything beyond the narrow circle of 
their own existence, the extraordinary fortitude with 
which they bear the ills and sorrows of life, are 
the result of centuries of oppression and degradation. 
In striking the fetters from a people who have been 
slaves for generations, we only free them at first in 
the material sense of the word* The moral force and 
intellectual strength nurtured by freedom cannot be 
bestowed upon a class or a race by any instantaneous 
process. They are the result of generations of he- 
reditary influence, of centuries of independence in 
thought and action. Thus, while the liberation of 
the serfs by Alexander II was an enlightened and 
humane measure, and one which reflects credit and 
honour upon that liberally disposed ruler, it did not 
transform, or indeed effect any serious political 
change in the condition of the Empire. In time the 
reform must lead to momentous results, but mean- 
while in addition to his ignorance, the liberated serf 
has to overcome other serious disadvantages. Set 
free in theory, the Russian serf in reality was eman- 
cipated from the bondage of the private owner merely 
to become the victim of the Mir, or communal organ- 
isation, which holds the land in trust for the peas- 
ants. It was one of the fundamental principles of 
the Emancipation Act to replace the authority of 
the private slave-owner by that of the commune. 
Theoretically the peasants own a large portion of the 
land of Russia; practically, except in isolated cases 
where they have acquired their holdings by purchase, 
they do not own a rood of the soil they till, and are 



270 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

SO circumscribed by the debasing communal system 
as to be little better off from an economic and politi- 
cal point of view tlian in the days of serfdom. 

A brief description of the system of local self- 
government that obtains in the chief districts of 
Russia will throw much light upon this point. The- 
oretically the local administration is largely in the 
hands of the people: practically the masses enjoy very 
little power. The peasantry, says Mr. C. E. Smith, 
"do not dwell on scattered farms, but are grouped in 
villages, and each of these villages constitutes a com- 
mune, or mir, which is the limit of political organisa- 
tion. The land held by a village is regarded as be- 
longing to the whole community, and is apportioned 
among the families according to the number of their 
working units. The communal assembly is composed 
of all the householders, who elect one of their num- 
ber Elder (Starosta), or executive, and consider and 
decide all communal affairs. The communes are 
united into volosts, each containing about 2,000 
householders. The volost assembly is composed of 
delegates from the village communes, one for every 
ten houses, who elect a volost Elder (Starshina), and 
who have the same powers for the volost which the 

communal assemblies have for the commune 

The volost assemblies also choose a peasants' tribunal 
of several judges, who have jurisdiction of offences 
of all classes, and of property disputes involving not 
over 100 roubles. Disputes of larger amount come 
under chiefs of the districts, wdio are taken from the 
nobility, and have a certain control over the peas- 
ants' tribunals. The system of local self-government 
is extended measurably to the district and province, 
v\diere the administration of economical affairs is 
placed in the hands of an assembly called the Zem- 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 271 

stvo, made up of nobles possessing a certain amount 
of land, and delegates elected by other landed pro- 
prietors, by the householders in the towns, and the 
peasantry. The executive power rests with the 
Uprava, who is nominated by the delegates. The 
power of the Zemstvos extend to matters of educa- 
tion, roads, saloons, public health, taxation, etc., and 
in many cases they have done valuable work, and 
shown a progressive spirit." This is the system of 
local administration devised in 1861. Theoretically 
it is progressive and democratic; in reality it is little 
better than a farce. Those who wish to obtain an 
insight into the conditions of rural Russia, and the 
state of the peasantry, will find much of interest in 
Count Tolstoi's remarkable novel, Anna Karenina. 

From the primary unit of state organisation up- 
wards, the absolute and strongly centralised system 
of government makes itself felt. The Mir and its 
Starosta have no political power or influence. To 
apportion the land among the inhabitants is avowedly 
the business of the Mir, but, if it has no political 
influence, it has social power over its own members 
of the most harsh and arbitrary kind. The peasant 
is bound to till the land allotted him, and to share the 
labours, fiscal burdens, and the military obligations 
of his commune. His bonds are ^^all the more strict 
and imperative, that they are imposed by his own 
equals; that his life is absorbed in theirs, and that 
he never can escape from them. If he departs, the 
Mir may recall him. If he stays to cultivate his 
share of land, the Mir may deprive him of it at the 
next distribution." It has also the power of sending 
its members in exile to Siberia, though it may not 
add the heavier penalties of imprisonment, or forced 
labour in the mines. At the next step in local ad- 



272 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

ministration, the volost and its Starshina are under 
the uncontrolled rule of a state official and of the 
police, and have become mere tools of the local 
police and tax-gatherers. The tribunal of the volost 
is at the mercy both of influential landed proprietors, 
and of the merchants, and money-lenders. The 
Zemstvos are for the most part "compelled to limit 
themselves to the adjustment of the state taxation, 
which is so high that new taxes for education, sani- 
tary purposes, and so on, must necessarily be very 
limited. Moreover, the decisions of the Zemstvos 
are jealously controlled by the representative of the 
Central Government — the Governor — and promptly 
annulled whenever they manifest a different spirit 
from that prevailing for the time at the Court. Dis- 
obedience is punished by dissolution, sometimes by 
administrative exile." In some districts where the 
peasants are in a majority, or the landowners are ani- 
mated by a liberal spirit, much useful work, partic- 
ularly on behalf of education, has been accomplished; 
but generally speaking the Zemstvos are mere crea- 
tures of the government, and the refuges of impecu- 
nious proprietors, and broken-down men in search of 
salaries and profitable jobs. 

The serious defects in the system of dealing with 
the land at the time of the liberation of the serfs, 
also helped to neutralise the benefits of that wise and 
enlightened measure. The State in its anxiety to 
indemnify the landlords, or, to speak more accurately, 
in the selfish eagerness of the landlords to indemnify 
themselves at the expense of the State and of every- 
one else, opened opportunities for grave abuses, by 
which the landed classes have profited to a large ex- 
tent. Instead of the amount to be paid to the land- 
owner for ground ceded to the peasants being based 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 273 

upon the value of the land, it was arrived at by esti- 
mating what amount of compensation should be given 
for the loss of the compulsory labour of the serfs; 
so that the price paid for the redemption of the land 
except in a few districts was much in excess of its 
value then or now. Moreover, taking advantage of 
the law regulating the size of the peasant holdings, 
"many proprietors cut away large parts of the allot- 
ments the peasants possessed under serfdom, and pre- 
cisely the parts the peasants were most in need of, 
namely, pasture lands around their houses, and for- 
ests. On the whole, the tendency was to give the 
allotments so as to deprive the peasants of grazing 
land, and thus to compel them to rent pasture lands 
from the landlords at any price."* From an eco- 
nomic point of view the liberation of the serfs re- 
sulted in the enrichment of the few, and the further 
impoverishment of the many. Under the new state 
of things neither peasants nor landlords have pros- 
pered. The former are unable to bear the burden of 
taxation placed upon them, and to pay the rack rents 
demanded for land without which their allotments 
would be of no value. Large numbers of them are 
hopelessly in arrears; many more have ceased to be 
farmers, have become merely labourers, and have 
emigrated to remote districts of the Empire. On the 
other hand a considerable number of peasants, acting 
either individually or united in communities, have 
bought up many hundred thousands of acres of land, 
and thus freed themselves from all obligations to the 
landlord or State. But taken as a whole the condi- 
tion of the Russian peasants is not hopeful. 

The emancipation of the serfs awakened the ex- 

*Encydopcedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, 
18 



274 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

pectations of Russian reformers; and from this period 
date the many movements in favour of political re- 
form. Much was at first hoped from Alexander II, 
who was both a humane and liberal-minded ruler. 
If he had been free to follow his personal convic- 
tions, many progressive measures, in addition to the 
abolition of serfdom, would no doubt have marked 
his reign. But the freeing of the serfs, and the rapid 
spread of Nihilism, which is wrongly confounded 
with the revolutionary movement by most English 
writers, alarmed the nobles and landed classes, who 
by their ascendency in the Imperial Councils were 
able to frustrate all proposals for reform. Mhilism 
was originally a philosophy. Its adherents are de- 
scribed by Turgenieff as men who ^'bow before no 
authority of any kind, and accept no faith on prin- 
ciple, whatever veneration surround it." The author 
of the new philosophy, which speedily spread 
throughout the educated classes, and gained a large 
number of adherents, was Alexander Herzen, one of 
the many famous literary men produced by Russia 
during the century. Though Nihilism was from the 
first closely allied with the workings of political 
thought, it was not, and never has been, associated 
with secret societies who sought to bring about the 
realisation of their objects by assassination and vio- 
lence. It is curious that in all parts of the worlds 
except Russia, the name should have become identi- 
fied with the terrorist methods of the revolutionary 
party. But in Russia the revolutionists, whom we 
ignorantly call Nihilists, are known under a variety 
of terms. Radicals, Socialists, Anarchists, Popular- 
ists, and members of the two famous secret societies, 
the Will of the People, and Land and Liberty. It 
may be afiirmed that while many Nihilists sympa- 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 275 

thised with the political movements of the time, the 
great bulk of them took no part whatever in the polit- 
ical struggle. But their leaders were stirring advo- 
cates of reform and political progress, and were there- 
fore singled out for persecution by the Government. 
Herzen was exiled to Perm, but escaped to Switzer- 
land. Many of his brother authors were less fortu- 
nate, and died after years of imprisonment, or hard 
labour, in Siberia. Though temporarily crushed, the 
movement in favour of freedom revived three years 
later, and received fresh impetus in 1870 under the 
leadership of Netchaieff. 

From this time the movement has continued to 
spread throughout Russia, in spite of the efforts of 
the Government to check it by every means in its 
power. Under the influence of Michael Bakunin, 
one of the most powerful of the revolutionary agita- 
tors, more extreme doctrines were adopted, and en- 
thusiasm for reform greatly stimulated. "Young 
men and women of rich families abandoned their 
homes, and went to the villages and factories in the 
capacity of workers, schoolmasters in villages, med- 
ical helps, and so on, either simply to share with 
the people their life of privation, or to carry on a 
revolutionary propaganda." Between the years 
1873 and 1876 over 2,000 persons were arrested, im- 
prisoned, exiled, and even flogged for their opinions. 
The flogging of political prisoners by the order of 
General Trepoff, the prefect of police at St. Peters- 
burgh, led to the attempt to assassinate him in 1878, 
by Vera Zasulitch, whose act caused great excite- 
ment, and whose courage aroused general sympathy 
wdth her. She was tried by a jury and acquitted, 
and an attempt to re-arrest her as she left the court 
led to a serious riot. The Government became more 



276 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

reactionary. All political prisoners were withdrawn 
from the jurisdiction of the Senate and trial by jury, 
and were dealt with secretly by courts-martial. 
Wholesale deportations to Siberia took place under 
circumstances of revolting cruelty. The Government 
seemed to imagine that anarchical ideas could be de- 
stroyed by violent measures. But while it spent its 
hatred upon hundreds of helpless victims, many of 
them guiltless of any wrong, it inflamed the animosity 
of its opponents, and enraged the friends of the suf- 
ferers. The revolutionists met violence with vio- 
lence: a period of terror began. Oflicial spies, a 
Governor-General, and the chief of the State Police, 
were murdered in rapid succession. Repeated at- 
tempts upon the life of the Tzar led to seventeen per- 
sons being hanged, and hundreds exiled. But there 
was no lack of volunteers to carry on the dangerous 
work of agitation and violence. 

To the Tzar existence became a terror. If he 
travelled, the train that conveyed him was wrecked; 
if he ventured into the streets an assassin was at 
hand; if he stayed within his palaces, he was liable 
at any moment to be blown up by an explosion simi- 
lar to that which destroyed a portion of the famous 
Winter Palace in 1880. The State was honey- 
combed by conspiracies. Count Loris-MelikofI was 
nominated president of a Supreme Commission for 
the management of the affairs of th^ State, and the 
Tzar practically abandoned the attempt to rule. 
Constitutional reforms were promised, and there was 
a lull in the agitation; political crime ceased, and for 
a time there was hope of better things from both 
sides. But the Government recovered from its 
fright, and reverted to its old policy. 'No reforms 
were granted, and Loris-Melikoff, who had promised 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 277 

them, was deprived of his office. The reign of terror 
was revived by the revolutionists, and on March 13th, 
1881, Alexander II was assassinated. Though not a 
strong or capable ruler, the Tzar was a liberal- 
minded, kind-hearted man, who had done his best to 
discharge the heavy responsibilities laid upon him. 
It was a hard destiny that he, as the embodiment of a 
system, should have been chosen by the revolutionists 
as an object of their hate. The news of his assassina- 
tion was received with horror throughout the civil- 
ised world, and for a time alienated much of the 
sympathy felt with the Russian agitation for reform. 
But neither the condemnation of their act as a great 
crime, nor the severity with which the government 
hunted down even those suspected of favouring them, 
deterred the revolutionists from carrying on their 
propaganda. 

For three years afterwards Alexander III, who 
succeeded his father, did not venture to be crowned 
in his ancient capital of Moscow. Any hope of im- 
mediate reform vanished. The new Tzar proved to 
be far more reactionary than his father, and during 
the first seven or eight years of his reign no means 
were spared to crush out not only the revolutionary 
movement, but everything that made for liberty of 
thought, and enlightenment. Severe measures were 
taken against the universities, restrictions were laid 
upon all instruction in science and philosophy, the 
teaching of the history of comparative legislation was 
prohibited, the medical college for women was shut 
up, the efforts of private individuals throughout the 
country on behalf of primary and secondary educa- 
tion were stopped in part or in whole, Sunday schools 
were forbidden, the censorship over the press was 
made more stringent. By such means do Russian 



278 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

statesmen imagine the progress of reform can be 
checked, and the spread of enlightened ideas pre- 
vented. It is the old story of King Canute and the 
sea, being reacted in all good faith at the dawn of 
the twentieth century ! But as long as the curse of 
arbitrary power rests upon the Empire, and as long as 
that power is used to crush the people, prevent the 
spread of education, pervert justice, and uphold 
abuses, the desire for reform and liberty which has 
permeated the educated classes, and has begun to 
filter doAvn to the masses, can never be extinguished. 
The position of women, intellectually and morally, 
in the movements which are exercising so great an in- 
fluence in Russia to-day, is one of the utmost im- 
portance. Fletcher of Saltoun declared that if he 
had the making of the ballads of a nation, he would 
not care who made the laws. But behind the maker 
of the ballad lie forces which teach the poet what 
he shall sing. The foot that rocks the cradle rules 
the world: and in Russia this power is being arrayed 
against the existing despotism. ISTotwithstanding the 
hostile efforts of the Government the cause of the 
liigher education of women is further advanced in 
Russia than in any other European country, and 
continues to make great progress. Over a thousand 
women, after passing the same examination as men, 
have taken their degree as doctors. When the Min- 
istry in 1888 closed the four universities for women, 
which had been established and were maintained by 
private effort, the students were over two thousand 
in number: while at the same period 90,000 pupils 
were attending 324 non-classical gymnasia for girls. 
But while the Government has done, and is doing, all 
in its power to prevent the higher education of 
women, the modern leaders in politics, literature, 



RUSSIA : JAPAN. 279 

and art, have welcomed women as intellectually equal 
comrades in work, and have extended to them in 
thought and action a considerate chivalry and moral 
equality which is only found among people of 
nobility and purity of character. As a natural result 
the sympathies of large numbers of educated women 
have been enlisted in the agitation for reform; and 
under the influence of misguided enthusiasm women 
have in many cases played an active part in con- 
spiracies and political crimes. Fortunately, how- 
ever, Russian revolutionists now appear to recognise 
that the cause they have at heart cannot be advanced 
by assassination, and that the way to victory lies 
in education for the masses, the spread of informa- 
tion, and other methods far removed from the vio- 
lence and terrorism to w^hicli Alexander II fell a 
victim. 

Alexander III was a Russian of the Russians, and 
during the thirteen years of his reign pursued a 
reactionary policy in all political, religious, and social 
questions. When his son Nicholas II succeeded to 
the throne in I^ovember, 1894, it was thought that 
this policy would be continued. The earlier utter- 
ances of the new Tzar were distinctly reactionary in 
tone. In replying to a deputation of delegates from 
local councils, who had gone to St. Petersburg to 
congratulate the Emperor and Empress on the occa- 
sion of their marriage, the Tzar w^arned his subjects 
against attaching any importance to the ^' foolish 
fancies '' of members of the Zemstvos who asked 
that representatives of the people should be allowed 
to participate in the general administration of the 
internal affairs of the State. ^^ Let all know that I 
devote all my strength to the good of my people, but 
that I shall uphold the principle of autocracy as 



280 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

firmly and unflinchingly as did my ever-lamented 
father." But in many respects the Tzar has proved 
more liberal-minded than might have been expected 
from these words. The manifesto addressed to his 
people on his coronation in May, 1896, announced 
very large remissions of taxation and punishment in 
the case of nearly all prisoners including political 
offenders. During an important strike affecting over 
thirty thousand people in St. Petersburg none of the 
Visually severe and arbitrary measures were taken. 
Something of the old confidence between the Em- 
peror and his subjects has been re-established. 
When the Tzar and Tzarina visited l^ijni-Xovgorod 
in July, 1896, the streets instead of being lined with 
troops and police, were filled with peaceful citizens. 
Perfect order prevailed; and this signal act of cour- 
age on the part of the Emperor and Empress un- 
doubtedly produced a good effect throughout the 
country. Gradually a more liberal and humane spirit 
has been introduced into many branches of Russian 
administration, though the punishment of flogging 
for even trivial offences has not yet been done away 
with. I^or have the stringent regulations against 
education been repealed. Distinguished professors 
of the chief universities continue to be dismissed on 
account of their liberal and progressive views. Police 
interference with university education still prevails, 
and attempts on the part of students to resist it lead 
to wholesale arrests. 

In her foreign policy Russia never sleeps. She 
pursues the objects she has in view with unremitting 
energy; and her success is due not less to energy 
than to consistency. When her advance towards the 
Mediterranean was checked, she turned her attention 
to Central Asia, with the result that her boundaries 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 281 

now extend to Afghanistan, and Russian influence 
predominates in Persia. Since ^Nicholas II came to 
the throne Russia has rapidly regained her ascend- 
ency in the Balkans, and Bulgaria, Servia, and in a 
less degree Roumania, have thrown in their fortunes 
with the great Power of the North. In the East, 
Russia has pursued her forward policy with great 
success and has outdistanced all other Powers in 
obtaining valuable concessions from China. In 1896 
she secured a convention for the construction of the 
Siberian railway across Manchuria. More recently 
the harbour of Kinchau has been occupied. Port 
Arthur has been secured as a naval station, and is 
being fortified, and an undertaking has been obtained 
that the Manchurian railways shall have the Russian 
gauge, and shall be extended to the ports of Ta-lien- 
wan and Port Arthur, and be connected with the 
Trans-Siberian railway. When that great line of 
railway is completed Russia will practically be at the 
gates of Pekin. In Corea, which, by a treaty con- 
cluded in 1896 between Russia and Japan, was placed 
under the joint control of both Powers, Russia has 
sought to obtain a preponderating influence. More 
than once it seemed probable that her intrigues would 
give rise to a Russo-Japanese war. Temporarily, 
Japanese susceptibilities have been allayed by the 
conclusion of a convention under which both Russia 
and Japan recognised definitely the sovereignty and 
entire independence of the peninsula. Both Powers 
have pledged themselves to abstain from all direct in- 
terference in internal affairs, and not to take any 
action in Corea except by mutual agreement. At 
the same time Japan is left free to develop her com- 
mercial and industrial relations with the kingdom. 
Japan represents the most romantic and not the 



282 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

least important feature in a history of the political 
progress of the century. Little more than a genera- 
tion ago the Japanese had no place among the civil- 
ised people of the world. For over two centuries 
they had lived in almost complete isolation, of the 
world forgetting, by the world forgot. Between 1638 
and 1853 foreign vessels were not permitted to touch 
at Japanese ports. So rigorously was all foreign in- 
fluence excluded that Japanese sailors wrecked on 
alien shores gained readmission to their native land 
with difficulty. The people, to quote one of their 
own proverbs, lived "like frogs in a well," and as far 
as the civilised Avorld was concerned there appeared 
every probability that their "lotos-eating" existence 
would go on unbroken. From this somnolent state 
of complete isolation there has sprung up since 1868 
a nation of extraordinary energy, capacity, and enter- 
prise, that has shaken off the shackles of centuries of 
traditions, replaced feudalism by democracy, ex- 
tended its commerce over the four quarters of the 
globe, called extensive industries and manufactures 
into existence, created a formidable army and a pow- 
erful navy, and won for itself a place among the civ- 
ilised Powers of the earth. There is nothing more 
romantic in history, nothing stranger in fiction than 
this sudden rise and progress of Japan. 

For centuries the Mikados, or hereditary Em- 
perors, had ruled as absolute monarchs over the 
country. They claimed divine origin, and abused 
their "divine right" as kings as fully as any European 
Sovereign of mediaeval times. So carefully was 
their divinity hedged about that the masses who 
obeyed their rule were seldom even permitted to set 
eyes upon the monarch they regarded as sacred. 
While supreme authority rested with the Emperors, 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 283 

the duty of giving effect to their august decrees de- 
volved upon the Shoguns, or military vice-regents, 
who seized and held the reins of power from 1192 
until 1868. Subject to the nominal control of the 
far-off and dreamy Mikado, the Shoguns enjoyed the 
power and honour of an Eastern despot. By degrees 
all State affairs fell into their hands. Supported by 
the territorial nobility, they exercised a military con- 
trol over the people which was quite as arbitrary and 
despotic as if it had been directly exerted by a ruler 
by "divine right.'' In this condition of feudalism the 
Japanese continued to exist until 1853, when the 
United States decided that in the growing interests 
of her trade with the East it was desirable that open 
ports should be established in Japan. Overtures for 
commercial intercourse had previously been made to 
the Shoguns by several nations, and summarily re- 
jected. What could not be obtained by diplomacy 
the United States decided to secure by force. Com- 
modore Perry was despatched with three or four 
frigates, and made a successful naval demonstra- 
tion. The Shogun collapsed: and in 1854 a treaty 
was concluded wdth the United States. Other na- 
tions hastened to claim privileges similar to those 
Commodore Perry had extorted, and within a few 
years Japan had entered into treaty engagements 
with no less than sixteen other States. A number 
of Japanese ports w^ere thrown open to foreign com- 
merce, and within certain limited areas foreigners 
were permitted to take up their residence. Japan 
resumed relations with the outside world which had 
been interrupted since 1638, when the Portuguese 
traders were excluded from the country by the Sho- 
guns, who in the interest of self-preservation felt 
that foreign intercourse, and Christianity, to which 



284 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

many Japanese liad become converts, were hostile to 
the political and religious systems upon which the 
safety of the military despotism rested. 

During these long centuries of feudal rule, and 
partial or entire isolation, Japan had not enjoyed 
an untroubled existence. She had been torn by civil 
conflicts, and had engaged successfully in many for- 
eign wars. It is significant that as far back as 1592 
Corea had been invaded, and a crushing defeat in- 
flicted upon the enemies of the Mikado. From the 
earliest times the Japanese troops have been con- 
spicuous for their bravery. The qualities which en- 
abled them to win victory after victory over the Chi- 
nese in recent years, are hereditary. That during 
centuries of oppression the people should have re- 
tained their valour, and should have achieved tri- 
umphs in art of permanent value to the whole world, 
are eloquent testimony to the fine qualities of the 
nation, and prophetic evidence of the future greatness 
of Japan in the history of the East. 

For some time before the arrival of Commodore 
Perry and the influences he carried with him, the 
old feudal system had begun to fall to pieces. The 
new generation were in truth being suckled in a creed 
outworn. Traditions of western civilisation had 
lingered on from the contact of the people with the 
Portuguese. The most rigid policy of isolation could 
not prevent the Japanese catching faint echoes of the 
bugle calls to liberty and progress which were ring- 
ing in the ears of other nations. Feudalism was 
tottering to its fall, and the hostile influence exerted 
by the arrival of foreigners was the last touch needed 
to complete its overthrow. The dissatisfaction with 
the military domination and oppressive rule of the 
Shogun speedily made itself felt. Many of the most 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 285 

powerful clans and nobles were in favour of a re- 
vival of the ancient regime, when the Mikado not 
only reigned but governed. The sentiment, the his- 
tory, the aspirations of the nation were centred in 
their Emperor. He was still the embodiment of 
"divine right,'' the spiritual lord before whose au- 
thority everyone bowed in submission. Though the 
Shoguns had consolidated their power with much 
ability, their rule from its rise onwards had been one 
of might, divorced from the sentiment or affection 
of the people. Between the Emperor and his sub- 
jects the Shoguns had for centuries stood as the 
representatives of force and oppression. A secret 
visit which several Japanese nobles made to Europe 
opened their eyes to what civilisation meant, and to 
the fact that Japan had been left far behind in the 
march of progress. The information which the tra- 
vellers carried back with them helped to precipitate 
events. 'No means were left unemployed to dis- 
credit the Shogun and increase the growing dislike 
with which he was regarded. "All possible means,'' 
says one writer, "were taken to involve him in compli- 
cations with the ambassadors at his court ; and to this 
motive, rather than to any hatred of foreigners, are 
to be ascribed the numerous assassinations which 
darkened the period immediately prior to 1868." 
Civil war followed, resulting in a complete victory 
for the Mikado. The despotism of the Shoguns over 
a divided Japan was ended, and under the influence 
of the Emperor a united and potent nation sprang 
into existence. Thus the new period which has been 
named Meiji, "enlightened peace," has come, as was 
fitting, through the Mikado, or "The Honourable 
Gate." 

From 1868 to 1889 Japan was employed in prepar- 



286 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

ation for the adoption of more liberal methods of gov- 
ernment, in strengthening her position, and in assert- 
ing her influence in the politics of the East. In 1874 
the first indication of her growing spirit was shown 
by the sending of a military expedition to Formosa 
to avenge the murder of Japanese subjects who had 
been shipwrecked on the island. This was the be- 
ginning of friction with China. Five years later, in 
spite of Chinese remonstrances and threats, she an- 
nexed the Loo Choo Islands; and in 1882 attempted 
to extend her sphere of influence over Corea. To 
carry out the spirited foreign policy necessary for 
the consolidation of the power, and the preservation 
of the safety of the nation, the Mikado and his 
advisers felt the necessity of reorganizing and in- 
creasing the army, and creating a navy. These tasks 
were entered upon with the extraordinary energy and 
confidence which have been characteristic features 
of Japanese history during the last quarter of the 
century. Strong self-reliance, a profound belief in 
their ovm destiny, a determination to obtain a fore- 
most place amongst the nations of the world, have 
enabled the Japanese to accomplish within a few 
years' results other nations have only achieved by cen- 
turies of patient effort. In 1882 conscription was 
adopted. Under this law all Japanese subjects are 
liable to serve from their twentieth year, and must 
pass three years cither in the army or the navy. 
They then pass into the army of reserve for four 
years, after which they form part of the landwehr 
for another five years. Behind the landwehr is the 
landsturm, which comprises every male from 17 to 
40 not in the active or reserve forces. The Japan- 
ese troops, which number 284,000 are disciplined 
after German methods, although no foreigner re- 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 287 

ceives a permanent appointment in the army. Most 
of the war materials are prepared in the arsenals of 
Tokio and Osaka, the army rifle, the Murata, is a 
Japanese invention; and excellent Military Colleges 
and Schools have been established. In 1887 a 
scheme of coast-defence was begun, and with un- 
faltering energy the development of an efficient and 
powerful navy has been pursued. Many ironclads 
have been built in England for the Government, but 
in this as in other respects Japan's ultimate aim is 
to rely upon her own resources. An extensive ship- 
building programme has been laid down, and within 
a few years, the navy, already a notable force, will 
secure for Japan a position of great influence in the 
politics of the far East. At present her fleet, built 
or approaching completion, consists of 6 first class 
battle-ships, 4 armoured coast-defence vessels, 7 
armoured cruisers, 16 protected cruisers, 5 third class 
cruisers, 12 gunboats, and a torpedo flotilla of nearly 
100 first, second, and third class boats. The per- 
sonnel of the navy, with a total strength of some 
14,000 officers and men, is of a high order, and has 
given ample proofs of discipline, bravery, and skill. 
In 1889 the Mikado, Mutsuhito, who had estab- 
lished a liberal form of government in 1873, which 
was further developed two years later, promulgated 
a popular constitution. By this measure Japan was 
placed on a footing of equality with many of the 
most enlightened states of the world. From having 
been an absolute monarchy the Government became 
a limited one. The Mikado, as the sovereign of the 
Empire, exercises executive powers with the advice 
and assistance of Cabinet Ministers, who are ap- 
pointed by himself. A Privy Council was formed, 
upon whose advice the Emperor can fall back in 



288 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

State matters of importance. The right of making 
war, and peace, and concluding treaties, remain nomi- 
nally with the sovereign. But in reality the Em- 
peror in these, and all other important matters, is 
controlled by the Imperial Diet, without whose con- 
sent no law can be made or altered. The Diet also 
has control over the national finances and the admini- 
stration of justice. Of the two legislative assemblies, 
the House of Peers presents some features of great 
interest to people of the British Empire, who desire 
to see our own House of Lords reformed, and at once 
brought in touch with the people, and strengthened 
in its position as the second Chamber. In Japan the 
House of Peers is made up of five different elements. 
(1) ^[ale members of the Imperial family, at least 20 
years of age; (2) princes (11) and marquises (28) of 
25 years of age; (3) counts, viscounts, and barons, 25 
years of age, elected by members of their respective 
orders, the representatives of any order never to 
exceed one-fifth of the total number of members of 
such order; (4) persons over 30 years of age nomi- 
nated members by the Emperor for distinguished 
services to their country; (5) persons over 30 years 
of age nominated by the Emperor and elected from 
each electoral district by the 15 male inhabitants 
thereof, who pay the largest amount of direct na- 
tional taxes on land, industry or trade, all the fifteen 
tax-payers, who form this limited electorate, to be 
over 30 years of age. The total nmnber of mem- 
bers under classes 4 and 5 must not exceed the total 
number of other members of the House. Members 
in classes 1, 2, and 4, hold their seats for life; but in 
3 and 5, only for seven years. Thus in the formation 
of the House of Peers the hereditary, the representa- 
tive, and the nominative principles are combined, and 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 289 

the restrictions imposed show no little foresight and 
statesmanship. While the Japanese House of Peers 
is too far removed from democratic influences to 
cause it to be hurried in times of political stress and 
strain into hasty or ill-considered action, it is not 
hopelessly out of touch with the people. It cannot 
be overawed, as the British House of Lords has been, 
by threats of a wholesale creation of new peers; and 
in the event of a conflict with the House of Repre- 
sentatives, it should be able to maintain its position 
with independence and dignity. The working of this 
and other parts of the Japanese Constitution cannot 
fail to afford us during the coming years many in- 
structive and valuable object lessons. 

The three hundred members of the Japanese House 
of Representatives are elected upon a broad suff- 
rage. The franchise has been extended to all sub- 
jects of not less than 25 years of age, who have re- 
sided for one year within an electoral district, and 
pay in direct national taxes not less than 15 yen, or 
about £2.5.0, per annum. The proportion of num- 
ber of members of the House to the population is 
one to about every 128,000. Every qualified voter 
over 30 years of age, is eligible for election, — a far 
more liberal regulation than exists in Great Britain; 
and all members of the House of Representatives, 
and the elected and nominated members of the House 
of Peers, are paid by the State 800 yen (about £120) 
a year, in addition to travelling expenses. Voting at 
elections is by secret ballot, and the system is that of 
scrutin de liste. Although Japan, like other coun- 
tries, has her own special difficulties, the new system 
of government has worked remarkably well. That a 
nation which only thirty years ago emerged from a 
condition of feudalism, should be capable of exercis- 
19 



290 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

ing successfully the privileges and responsibilites of 
self-government, is a proof of tlie many sterling 
qualities and of the high order of intelligence of the 
people. 

In addition to her Ministry and Parliament Japan 
also possesses a complete system of local self-govern- 
ment to meet the requirements of the cities, towns, 
villages, and rural districts. Education throughout 
the Empire is free and compulsory. In 1895 when 
the population of Japan was 42,270,000 there were 
26,631 elementary schools, with 73,182 teachers, and 
3,670,345 pupils. This gives an average of one 
teacher to every 51 children, a better result than 
obtains in Great Britain. With a population of forty 
liiillion there were in the United Kingdom in 1895 
31,675 elementary schools with an average attend- 
ance of 5,615,073. Though in education Japan may 
still be far behind Europe it is evident from these 
figures that she will not remain so for long. ISTor has 
she neglected the question of higher education. 
There were in 1895, 96 Lower Middle Schools, 7 
High Schools, 15 High Schools for girls, 49 Normal, 
and 97 Technical Schools, 1,263 Special Schools, and 
three Universities. These higher educational insti- 
tutions contained 7,044 teachers and 124,851 stu- 
dents. The great intellectual activity of the people 
is evident from the large number of books, periodic- 
als and newspapers issued. In 1895 no less than 26,- 
792 books, and 753 monthly, weekly, or daily peri- 
odicals, were published. Absolute freedom of religi- 
ous belief is secured under the constitution. The 
system of Justice is founded on modern Jurispru- 
dence, and the judges are appointed for life. In 
population, industries, commerce, shipping, and the 
construction of railways, the development of postal 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 291 

and telegraphic facilities, Japan has made wonderful 
progress during the last five years of the century. In 
the future she is unquestionably a Power Avhicli will 
have to be reckoned with by all other nations. 

In 1893 a series of disturbances in Corea gave 
Japan an opportunity, for which she had been watch- 
ing, of extending her power over that peninsula. In 
1873 and 1882 she had wrung concessions from the 
Emperor of Corea, and had gained a footing in the 
country. The considerable increase in the number 
of foreign merchants in their country was viewed 
with hostility by many of the inhabitants, and in 
1893 demands were presented to the Emperor for 
the suppression of foreign religions and the expulsion 
of all foreign traders. A refusal of these demands 
led to disturbances, and a civil war was threatened. 
For generations Corea had acknowledged the suze- 
rainty of China, though practically the kingdom was 
an independent one. To protect their national inter- 
ests both China and Japan despatched men-of-war 
to Chemulpo, the port of Seoul, the capital. The re- 
bellion continuing to spread, the King in 1894 ap- 
plied to China for assistance, and 2,000 Chinese 
troops were sent to him. To this Japan responded 
by landing a force, nominally to protect her legation, 
consulates, and residents; and proposed to China a 
joint intervention to re-establish order and effect re- 
forms. Upon the rejection of this proposal, Japan 
declared she would act alone, and promptly de- 
spatched her fleet and a force of 6,000 men to Seoul. 
The rebellion was put down, but the Japanese force 
did not retire. Having gained supremacy in Corea 
the Emperor of Japan intended to maintain it. He 
called upon the King of Corea to renounce the suzer- 
ainty of China, to dismiss the Chinese Resident, and 



292 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

to accept Japanese protection. Encouraged by China, 
Corea rejected these demands, and in July fighting 
began. Although war had not been declared a Jap- 
anese cruiser fired upon and sank a Chinese transport 
with 1,500 troops on board. This was followed by 
the promulgation of an Edict by the Emperor of 
China, who declared that Corea had been a tributary 
to his throne for two hundred years, and commanded 
his troops to drive the Wojan, ^^the pestilent Japs,'' 
out of the country. War was declared, and Japan 
entered upon a campaign of unbroken victory. 

China was ill-prepared for war. Her army was 
little better than an undisciplined, and badly 
equipped mob; her ships were old-fashioned, badly 
manned, and inefficiently commanded. Ping Yang, 
a strongly fortified place on the great north road 
in Corea, was captured on the 16th of September, 
and the Chinese army routed with great slaughter. 
Two days later the Chinese fleet was partly destroyed 
at the mouth of the Yalu River. Attempts at medi- 
ation on the part of Great Britain and the United 
States proved ineffectual. In October 22,000 Japan- 
ese troops were landed north of Port Arthur, and 
within three weeks the strongest fortress in China 
was captured. An advance was made upon Kin- 
chou, and severe fighting took place in Manchuria, 
always with disastrous results to the Chinese. In 
January, 1895, Kaiphing was taken, and over 2,000 
Chinese killed and wounded. A week later two Chi- 
nese Corps were routed near l^iuchuang, and their 
guns captured; and the attack upon Wei-hai-Wei be- 
gan. Its forts were held by a large force, the Chi- 
nese fleet rode in the bay, and preparations for the 
defence had been carefully made under the command 
of foreign officers in the Chinese service. The Jap- 



RUSSIA: JAPAN. 293 

anese attacked with 25,000 men, twenty-five men-of- 
war, fifteen armed transports, and twenty-two tor- 
pedo boats. On January 30th all the southern forts 
were captured, and thirteen days later Wei-hai-Wei, 
after much severe fighting and heavy loss of life, sur- 
rendered. One of the forts had been blown up by 
the naval gunner Li who perished in the explosion. 
General Tai, Admiral Ting, and three other Chinese 
ofiicers of high rank, committed suicide. Ten large 
Chinese war vessels, besides many smaller ones, were 
captured by Japan. The others had been sunk, and 
the Chinese fleet had ceased to exist. On March 4th 
the ancient city of J^iuchuang fell after five hours 
resistance, and a large force under General Sung 
was routed with much slaughter. Pekin was in dan- 
ger, the safety of the dynasty was threatened, and 
the Viceroy Li Hung Chang was despatched to Japan 
to conclude terms of peace. China renounced her 
claims over Corea. As an indemnity Japan received 
230 million taels. The island of Formosa, and the 
Pescadores group of islands were ceded to her, and 
she was only prevented from retaining Port Arthur, 
and the Liao-tong Peninsula, by the intervention of 
the European Powers. A friend in need is a friend 
indeed. It was in the hour of defeat and adversity 
that Russia overwhelmed China with professions of 
friendship and offers of aid. Her assistance was not 
disinterested; her policy was astute. The loan 
needed to pay the huge war indemnity was guaran- 
teed by Russia, and was therefore quickly raised on 
favorable terms. At the time British statesmen pro- 
fessed incredulity of a report that in exchange for 
such services Russia was to obtain important con- 
cessions in Manchuria, and to secure possession of 
Port Arthur. But we are now aware that Russian 



294 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

diplomacy in 1895 was very far from being guided 
by sentiment. Thus ended the memorable war be- 
tween the greatest and most ancient nation of the 
East, and the progressive Japanese, whom their ene- 
mies found even more ''pestilent" than they antici- 
pated. 

But the Corean question remains. By the Con- 
vention between Russia and Japan it has been de- 
ferred, not settled. On the I^orth East the Russian 
frontier is only separated from Corea by the Tinmen 
River. To the ISTorth the neutral zone between 
Corea and Manchuria has practically disappeared. 
Russian annexation of the whole of Manchuria is only 
a matter of time. With that object before her Rus- 
sia cannot view with indifference Japanese preten- 
tions in Corea. The 1740 miles of coast line, and 
the magnificent harbour of Port Lazaref, a rich ter- 
ritory of ninety thousand square miles, are not 
prizes which Russia will lightly relinquish to the 
rival from whom she has most to fear in the East. 
This is perfectly well understood in Japan. Will the 
Mikado wait until the Tzar has completed his trans- 
Siberian Railway, and the great naval depots being 
created, or will he as soon as the important additions 
to his fleet are finished, force the hand of Russia as 
he did that of China ? 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 295 



CHAPTEE XYI. 

ME. Disraeli's administeation. 

The foreign policy of Mr. Disraeli's administra- 
tion of 1874-80 was fruitful of results. With some 
of these we have already dealt. In Turkey, in Egypt, 
in Afghanistan, in India, the British Prime Minister 
had pursued with varying success a policy which, if 
not always distinguished by a lofty political morality, 
was Imperial in spirit, consistent in purpose, and 
courageous in its recognition of the destinies of the 
Empire. Three other acts remain to be recorded. 
In 1874 the Eiji islands were annexed. The events 
that led up to the annexation of the Transvaal Re- 
public in 1877 will be dealt with later. Little can 
be said in defence of the war in 1879 with the Zulus. 
It began with the defeat and slaughter of the British 
force under Lord Chelmsford at Isandula, an event 
which caused a painful sensation at the time. The 
death of the young Erench Prince Louis N^apoleon was 
another melancholv incident. Cetewayo, the Zulu 
King, was eventually captured, and his army crushed, 
but the war from the first was unpopular, and time 
has not removed the impression that it might easily 
have been avoided. But at home the Conservative 
Ministry accomplished little that was memorable, or 
that can be said to have materially aided political 
progress. Many of the measures they introduced 
were abandoned; others were permissive instead of 



296 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

compulsory and therefore led to comparatively small 
results; some were distinctly reactionary. But if no 
great reforms were carried, a number of useful acts 
of minor importance were added to the Statute Book. 

The Bill for the abolition of lay patronage in the 
Church of Scotland has aptly been described as ^^a 
Liberal measure which had become a reactionary 
scheme by being brought into the world a generation 
behind its time." That was a fault for which the 
newly born Government could scarcely be held 
responsible. But what would have been a wise and 
generous concession had it been made before 1843, 
had become by 1874 of doubtful expediency and 
value. The great secession from the Church of Scot- 
land under Dr. Chalmers, had been due to the system 
of patronage. A large body had been driven out 
of the Church to find ministers, and to build Churches, 
manses, and schools for themselves. The Free 
Church was the result of the system which the Bill 
sought to remedy. If the system of lay patronage 
was to be abolished as an evil, the action of Dr. 
Chalmers and his co-religionists in dissenting from 
the Established Church was vindicated. If time had 
justified their action, then the measure granting the 
reform for which they had pleaded in vain, should 
have done something to bring about a reunion of the 
Church and the great Presbyterian Communities who 
had been driven out of its fold. Mr. Gladstone, who 
led the opposition to the Bill, further objected to the 
exclusion of all parishioners who were not com- 
municants, from any share in the future selection of 
ministers, and to the omission of any provision calcu- 
lated to meet the peculiar needs of Highland parishes. 
The Bill was, however, passed by large majorities. 

The Public Worship Begulation Bill, originally 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 297 

introduced into the House of Lords by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, was another unfortunate measure. It 
was not a Government Bill, but during its progress 
through the House of Commons Mr. Disraeli took it 
under his special care. The debates gave rise to some 
curious passages between political allies. Mr. Glad- 
stone in one of his greatest speeches, attacked the Bill 
on the ground that it threatened to deprive the Church 
of England of her spiritual freedom merely to obtain 
a more easy way of dealing with "the eccentricities 
of a handful of men.'' Sir William Harcourt attack- 
ed Mr. Gladstone with much bitterness, and declared 
that his speech could only be described as a plea for 
universal Nonconformity, or optional conformity. 
The Bill was disliked by many members and support- 
ers of the Government. It was assailed by Lord 
Salisbury, the Secretary of State for India. Mr. 
Disraeli retorted by describing Lord Salisbury as a 
man who never measured his phrases, "a great master 
of gibes, and flouts, and sneers." The object of the 
Bill was to put down Ritualism. The authority of 
the Bishops was strengthened and extended. They 
were given a general power of directory over public 
worship in the Church. Boards of lay and clerical 
assessors were created to advise the Bishops, and con- 
duct inquiries into alleged irregularities. Parishion- 
ers, rural deans, and archdeacons, were granted a 
legal right to represent to the Bishops practices which 
were thought to constitute a grievance. If upon in- 
quiry the practices complained of were condemned by 
the Bishop and his assessors, the Bishop would issue 
his monition. From that order the incumbent might 
appeal to the Archbishop with a board of assessors, 
whose decision should be final. The Bill was passed: 



298 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

but the efforts to enforce its provisions have not been 
successful. 

For several years Mr. Samuel Plimsoll had devoted 
his attention to the need of affording British seamen 
protection against being sent to sea in old and rotten 
vessels. He had accumulated a mass of facts proving 
that the gravest evils resulted from the wilful em- 
ployment of unseaworthy ships, from overloading 
them, and under-manning them, from bad stowage, 
and from over-insurance. Large numbers of seamen 
had been sent to their death in order that ^^Ship- 
knackers," as Mr. Plimsoll called them, might reap 
fraudulent profits. Great as the evils undoubtedly 
were, they assumed an exaggerated proportion in the 
eyes of Mr. Plimsoll. A large-hearted, kindly en- 
thusiast, the abuses which had been so nearly brought 
home to him during his inquiries, blinded his sense 
of justice and warped his judgment. In seeking to 
protect helpless sailors he indulged in many unjust 
and sweeping denunciations of shipowners both in and 
out of Parliament. But his motives were excellent, 
and his persistency at length forced the subject upon 
the attention of Government. In 1874 a stringent 
Bill introduced by Mr. Plimsoll was only defeated by 
a majority of three. The following year the Ministry 
brought in the Merchant Shipping Bill, but owing 
to the pressure of business announced its abandonment 
for the session on the 22 nd of July. An extra- 
ordinary scene followed. Labouring under great 
excitement Mr. Plimsoll denounced the Government, 
and declared they were sending some thousands of 
men to certain death. Members of the House in- 
terested in ships or shipping were declared to be a 
murdering class, and Mr. Plimsoll shouted that he 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 299 

would "unmask tlie villains." !N^eitlier the orders of 
the Speaker, nor the entreaties of his friends, could 
induce the Member for Derby to withdraw his ex- 
pressions. They only led to reiteration of the term 
"villains," and to renewed declarations that he ap- 
plied the epithet to certain members of the House. 
Eventually Mr. Plimsoll was persuaded to go for "a 
walk in the open air," and an ample apology followed 
a week later. But though Mr. Plimsoll's language 
was reprehensible, his cause was felt to be just. Mr. 
Disraeli was the first to admit that it was an ebullition 
of "sensibility," excited by Mr. PlimsoU's devotion to 
a great and a good cause. The Government yielding 
to the pressure of public opinion passed a temporary 
measure giving the Board of Trade additional powers. 
It fell far short of the reforms demanded by Mr. Plim- 
soll, and urgently needed for the protection of seamen ; 
but the Government promised to supplement it by 
further legislation the following year. Early in the 
session of 18Y4 Sir Charles Adderley, the President 
of the Board of Trade, brought in and carried the 
Merchant Shipping Act. By this Act the Board of 
Trade was empowered to detain either for survey, or 
permanently, any vessel deemed unsafe, on account of 
defective hull, machinery, equipments, improper load- 
ing, or overloading. Every owner was compelled 
to maintain a painted mark on the side of his ship 
showing the line down to which the vessel might be 
loaded with safety. Restrictions were also placed 
upon deck-cargoes, the shipment of grain in bulk, and 
other matters. Great benefits followed the passing of 
this excellent measure, though it may be doubted 
whether the law regulating maritime insurance does 
not still require to be greatly strengthened. An at- 
tempt was made by Mr. Chamberlain to deal with the 



300 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

whole question upon stringent lines in 1884; but tlie 
Bill had to be withdrawn. In 1890 on the initiative 
of Mr. Broadhurst, effect was given to Mr. PlimsolFs 
original demand that the fixing of the load-line on 
vessels should be taken out of the hands of owners, 
and made a duty of the Board of Trade. 

Mr. Plimsoll's efforts, important as they were, only 
represent, of course, a fraction of what has been ac- 
complished by Parliament, and by private effort, for 
the benefit of seamen, and the protection and safety 
of our great Mercantile Marine Service. To these 
many reforms both parties have contributed. During 
the last half of the century there has scarcely been a 
session without legislation on the subject. Light- 
houses have been multiplied and improved; sound- 
signals have been established ; harbours have been con- 
structed, deepened, and made accessible; charts have 
been perfected; the classification of ships has been 
revised; tonnage measurement has been reformed; an 
excellent system of ship registry has been established ; 
masters, mates, and engineers have been required to 
pass examinations; offices exist where seamen are en- 
gaged and discharged, where they receive their wages, 
and Avhere their characters are recorded; savings- 
banks and money-orders are provided for them; and 
they have summary means of recovering wages. Life- 
boats, and rocket-apparatus for saving life from ship- 
wreck, are established round the coasts ; every wreck is 
made the subject of an investigation; international 
rules have been made for preventing collision; an 
international code of general signals has been estab- 
lished, as well as an international system of signals 
of distress ; and the laws relating to merchant shipping 
have been codified. 

Up to 1872 the Laws regulating the Liquor Traffic 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 301 

had been scandalously lax. They are still very far 
from satisfactory, but before the Act passed by Mr. 
Bruce, the Home Secretary, during Mr. Gladstone's 
administration, the absence of reasonable control by 
the State over licensed victuallers had given rise to 
many abuses. At the time it was passed Mr. Bruce's 
Licensing Act was thought to be too stringent. A 
more enlightened public opinion would now condemn 
it as too mild. In many respects it was a beneficent 
measure. It imposed severe penalties for the illicit 
sale of drink, for permitting drunkenness or gambling 
upon licensed premises, for harbouring a policeman 
in such premises during the hours he was on duty, and 
for attempting to bribe any constable. The tempta- 
tion to drunkenness was limited by restricting the 
time during which all licensed premises might be kept 
open, the local authorities being granted a discretion- 
ary power for extending the hours to meet the genuine 
requirements of any district. Every conviction which 
involved a fine of a pound or upwards was ordered to 
be endorsed on the license, which upon the record- 
ing of a third offence was to be forfeited, and the 
holder disqualified for ^yo years, and his premises 
for two years, for receiving another. A register open 
to the inspection of every ratepayer was to be kept in 
each district, showing particulars of all convictions. 
In counties a committee of three justices, appointed 
annually from among the local magistrates, became 
the licensing authority ; but in boroughs no license was 
valid unless confirmed by the body of Justices. To 
check the multiplication of small public houses, which 
are undoubtedly one of the chief causes of intemper- 
ance, all premises licensed in the future were to be of 
a suitable annual value, according to the locality. 
Justices interested in the manufacture or sale of in- 



302 POLITICAL PROORESS OF THE CENTURY. 

toxicants were excluded from taking any part in tlie 
administration of the law. Stringent provisions were 
made against the adulteration of beer. To see that 
the law was obeyed the police were empowered to 
enter licensed houses not merely for the purpose of 
enforcing order, but to "examine every room and part 
of such premises, and take an account of all intoxicat- 
ing liquors found therein." 

Against some of these restrictions the licensed vic- 
tuallers, and others concerned in the drink traffic, 
raised a loud protest. It is humiliating to acknowl- 
edge that the interest is the most powerful one in 
Great Britain. Its power is increased by its unity, 
and effective organisation. In its support it main- 
tains a great London morning paper. Numerous rep- 
resentatives of the trade are members of the House 
of Commons and the House of Lords. For some 
years statesmen have delighted to recruit the peerage 
from the ranks of those who have been most success- 
ful in aiding the nation "to drink itself into pros- 
perity," — a happy phrase describing the enormous 
growth of the public revenue from the sale of intoxi- 
cants. Mr. Gladstone's Government did a bold thing, 
therefore, when it interfered, in the interests of 
public morality, with public-houses. It raised against 
itself a storm of opposition, by which the Conserva- 
tives under Mr. Disraeli largely profited. The results 
of the General Election, which relegated Mr. Glad- 
stone to the shades of opposition, were due in no in- 
considerable degree to the agitation of the licensed 
\dctuallers, the brewers, distillers, and their allies in 
trade. Mr. Bruce's Act had been denounced with 
great effect by the Conservatives, and they returned 
to office pledged to bring in a measure for the relief 
of the trade. But when Mr. Cross, the new Home 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 303 

Secretary, came to deal with the question he found no 
little difficulty in carrying out the lavish promises 
of his party. It was easy to amend admitted defects 
in Mr. Bruce^s Act, but to attempt the repeal of its 
many excellent clauses would have aroused the opposi- 
tion of every elector who was not controlled by the 
liquor trade. The Bill of 1874 which was to do 
justice to the wronged publicans, proved a very mild 
one. It repealed the clauses dealing with the adultera- 
tion of beer. These were admitted to have been a 
dead letter. It took away from the police the power 
to enter and search licensed premises. There is no 
doubt that the powers conferred by the Act of 1872, 
were too large, and were not adequately safeguarded. 
It attempted to extend the hours during which the 
sale of drink might be carried on; but as amended in 
Committee the Bill placed further restrictions upon 
the time limit, except in the case of London. The 
endorsement of convictions upon licenses was left to 
the discretion X)f the magistrates instead of being com- 
pulsory. In other respects the Act of 1872 was not 
interfered with, and at the close of the century re- 
mains the principal law regulating the sale of intox- 
icants. What Mr. Bruce sought to accomplish by his 
adulteration clauses has since been secured under the 
"Sale of Food and Drugs Acts'' of 1875, 1879, and 
1899. But while earnest efforts have been made by 
both political parties to prevent the adulteration of 
every article of food or drink used by the nation, the 
law has not succeeded in defining satisfactorily what 
adulteration is. Fraud, and the use of ingredients 
deleterious to health, have been very largely put down, 
but in beer and many other articles it is left for the 
public analysts to define in each case what constitutes 
adulteration. The power of the drink trade in Great 



304: POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Britain is shown by the fact that since 1874 no further 
laws have been passed for the regulation and restric- 
tion of the traffic, though its many evils are admitted 
by all thoughtful men. A proposal made by the Con- 
servative Government in 1890 to arm the County 
Councils with powers which would have enabled them 
to reduce the number of public houses, had to be 
abandoned owing to opposition to the scheme of 
compensation by which it was accompanied. Hitherto 
the chief obstacle to any progress has been due to the 
difficulty of devising a scheme of reform which would 
satisfy the advocates of temperance, who are too often 
singularly intemperate in their language and demands, 
without inflicting hardship upon a large section of the 
community, and ruin upon a commercial interest of 
gigantic extent. In 1896 a Royal Commission was 
appointed to examine and report upon proposals for 
amending the laws in the public interest, '^due regard 
being had to the rights of individuals." After an 
exhaustive enquiry two reports were issued in 1899, 
one by the majority of the Commissioners, and the 
other by the Chairman, Yiscount Peel, the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, and seven other members. Of these 
two reports, both of great interest, Lord Peel's con- 
tains many recommendations which the new century 
will unquestionably see carried out. It is the first 
statesmanlike effort to deal with a most difficult and 
complex question upon broad lines of justice and 
efficiency. 

A Bill introduced by Lord Sandon in 1876 further 
extended the benefits of the Elementary Education 
Act of 1870. The provisions for rendering attend- 
ance compulsory were enlarged ; the limit of age under 
which no child might be employed was increased to 
ten; no child under eleven years of age, (to be raised 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 305 

in four years to fourteen) might be employed who 
had not obtained a certificate of proficiency in the 
^ 'Three Rs" from an efiicient school; punishment was 
provided for employers or parents violating these pro- 
visions. To further encourage regularity of attend- 
ance children who attained a certain standard of 
proficiency within a stipulated age and made an 
adequate number of attendances, were to have their 
school fees paid by Government during three years. 

The appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords 
which had been abolished by Mr. Gladstone's ad- 
ministration was now restored in a form more in 
harmony with modern requirements. Under Lord 
Cairn's Act a Court was established to relieve the 
House of Lords as a body of the duty of hearing cases 
of appeal. The new Court was to consist, in addition 
to certain Judges who were to be ex officio members of 
the tribunal, of Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, ap- 
pointed by the Crown, and entitled during their term 
of office to sit^s members of the House of Lords and 
as members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council. A final appeal lies from this, as from all 
other Courts, to the full Court of the House of Lords, 
consisting of the Lord Chancellor, the Lords of Ap- 
peal, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, 
and the Law Lords. Though Lord Cairn's proposals 
were severely criticised by his opponents at the time, 
they have worked well, and have given general 
satisfaction. 

A number of measures of less importance were 
passed by the Conservative administration. The 
Artisans' Dwelling Act of 1875, for the suppression 
of what Mr. Cross happily termed "rookeries" in Lon- 
don, was admirable in principle, but it had two serious 
defects; it did not go nearly far enough, and the 
20 



306 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

compensation it granted to the owners of the worst 
classes of houses was excessive. The whole question 
of the housing of the working classes required to be 
dealt with in a large and liberal spirit. The Agri- 
cultural Holdings Bill passed in 1875 aimed at giving 
English tenants security for improvements made on 
their farms ; but its value was practically destroyed by 
the law bein^ made permissive instead of compulsory. 
In 1876 a much needed measure was passed, regu- 
lating and restricting the practice of vivisection. 
Two Acts to prevent the enclosure of Common lands, 
and the pollution of rivers, were also creditable and 
desirable pieces of legislation. In 1877 a Bill was 
passed placing the control and management of all 
prisoners from the date of their commitment, under 
Government. The superior Courts of Ireland were re- 
organised; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge 
were given powers enabling them to extend the bene- 
fits of higher education; the jurisdiction of County 
Courts w^as reformed and enlarged. During 1878 a 
million of the money accruing to the Commissioners 
under The Irish Church Act, was appropriated for 
the purposes of Intermediate Education in Ireland, to 
encourage which a special Board was established. 
Elementary and Secondary Education in Scotland 
were promoted by two Acts; four new bishoprics, — 
those of Liverpool, IsTewcastle, Southwell, and Wake- 
field — were founded, and arrangements made to pro- 
vide further episcopal supervision as occasion might 
arise by an order of the Queen in Council; public- 
houses in Ireland were closed on Sunday; the laws 
relating to factories and workshops were strengthened, 
and the Public Health Act amended. In 1879 the 
Government made a feeble endeavor to deal with the 
complicated subject of University education in Ire- 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 307 

land. Their measure pleased no one. It alienated 
many of their supporters, it did not conciliate the 
Irish Catholics. Queen's University was abolished, 
and in its place a new University open to all comers 
was created, with powers to conduct examinations, and 
confer degrees in all Faculties except Theology. The 
Mutiny Act and the Articles of War were revised 
and consolidated in a new measure entitled the Army 
Discipline Act, which gave rise to prolonged dis- 
cussion upon flogging as a punishment in the service. 
Lord Hartington, after much hesitation, moved a reso- 
lution, which was supported by Mr. Gladstone, for 
the total abolition of flogging except as a substitution 
for the penalty of death, but the motion was defeated 
by 289 to 183. The Corrupt Practices Acts were 
amended and made perpetual instead of temporary; 
and an Act was passed ^^for more effectually provid- 
ing for prosecutions in England," by empowering 
the Home Secretary to appoint a Director of Public 
Prosecutions.- 

The Session of 1875 witnessed the beginning of 
those scenes of disorder in the House of Commons, 
and organised attempts to prevent the transaction of 
all public business, which were a disgrace to the mem- 
bers who took part in them, and led to drastic changes 
in the regulations governing Parliamentary procedure. 
The disorders began in the election of John Mitchell 
for Tipperary, and the refusal of the House to admit 
him as a member because he had escaped from a sen- 
tence of fourteen years' transportation by breaking his 
parole. Dr. Kenealy's return for Stoke, and his 
ridiculous agitation on behalf of the Tichborne Claim- 
ant added to the troubles. An order calling upon two 
printers to attend at the Bar of the House to answer 
a supposed breach of privilege, drew attention to the 



308 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

anomalous Parliamentary rules whicli existed regard- 
ing the press. Mr. Disraeli declined to enter upon a 
revision of the question of Parliamentary privilege. 
The Irish members rejoiced at having discovered a 
new way of tormenting their opponents. Whenever 
a particularly inconvenient opportunity arose, Mr. 
Biggar, Mr. Sullivan, or some other Irish member, 
would spring up and cry out that they ^^espied 
strangers," whereupon the proceedings of the House 
were stopped, and the Speaker was compelled to order 
all strangers to withdraw. Under the standing 
orders the Prince of Wales and the reporter of an 
Irish newspaper were turned out with equal im- 
partiality. Eventually the difficulty was removed by 
altering the standing order so as to leave it to the 
discretion of the Speaker whether or not strangers 
should be excluded. 

During the session of 18Y7 new forms of obstruc- 
tion were devised and led to scenes which seriously 
discredited Parliamentary Government. Mr. Parnell, 
who had been returned to the House two years pre- 
viously, was rapidly asserting his remarkable qualities 
as a leader and Parliamentary tactician. The House 
having repeatedly refused by overwhelming majorities 
to entertain the demand for Home Rule, Mr. Parnell 
originated what he termed "a policy not of concilia- 
tion but retaliation.'' The objects of this policy were 
to render both the Government and the House of 
Commons ridiculous, and to paralyse all legislative 
effort. The rules of procedure in the House had 
been framed when members of all shades of opinion 
were inspired by a high regard for the dignity and 
traditions of the British Parliament. To preserve the 
rights of minorities, and secure the fullest liberty of 
speech, had been the object of both the great parties 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 309 

in tlie State. Among the rules of procedure one pro- 
vided that any member might move for an adjourn- 
ment of the House, or of a debate. There were no 
restrictions as to the number of times a member might 
repeat his motion, just as there were no restrictions 
as to the number of verbal amendments which might 
be proposed upon each successive clause of a bill. 
The House of Commons had been hitherto assumed 
to be an assembly of gentlemen. Many stormy scenes, 
many outbursts of passion had taken place within its 
walls. But until now men had always been restrained 
from grossly abusing these privileges by a sense of 
self-respect, and of what was due to their position as 
members of a great, a free, and an historic legislature. 
Over Mr. Parnell and his little band of followers these 
influences exercised no control. In the liberties 
secured to minorities they saw nothing but an effective 
weapon of vengeance. They cared nothing for the 
traditions of the British Parliament. To discredit it 
was to them a joy not a sorrow. Every consideration 
of decency, of chivalry, was swallowed up by political 
passion, by an overweening sense of their own impor- 
tance, by an insatiable thirst for notoriety. In the 
early days of July a handful of Irish members began 
their system of organised obstruction. During the 
discussion on the army estimates Mr. O'Connor Power 
moved to report progress. The motion was defeated 
by 128 votes to 8. Sixteen motions of a similar char- 
acter were moved in succession, and four attempts 
were made to count out the House. From one until 
seven o'clock on the morning of July 3rd members 
in attendance were kept busy walking through the 
division lobbies, with no object but to gratify the 
vindictive feelings of an Irish minority, which at first 
cmly numbered eight and soon fell to five. If these 



310 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

tactics were to be continued it was evident the rules 
of debate would have to be revised. But the patience 
of the majority was not yet exhausted. It was hoped 
that Irish members would recognise the futility and 
unseemliness of their conduct. During the following 
three weeks more moderate councils prevailed. But 
on July 25th Mr. Parnell was reported to the Speaker 
for having used certain words, and was ordered to 
withdraw from the House. On July 31st a disgrace- 
ful scene occurred. During the consideration in 
Committee of the South African Bill, resort was had 
to every device permissible under the rules of pro- 
cedure to prevent progress. Unfortunately, the 
Government instead of boldly grappling with the 
difficulties that faced them had determined to defeat 
the Irish members by their own methods. They had 
arranged that the House should be attended night and 
day by relays of fresh members, who would carry on 
the fight until the faction was overcome by physical 
exhaustion. It was an unworthy and undignified pro- 
ceeding. Sir Stafford l^orthcote, who had become 
leader of the House on the elevation of Mr. Disraeli to 
the peerage, was ill-fitted to battle with the Obstruc- 
tives. He was neither an eloquent speaker nor a 
strong leader. He was essentially an English coun- 
try gentleman, mild, conciliatory, and anxious not to 
wound the susceptibilities of his fellow-men, or do 
anything unworthy of the traditions of Parliamentary 
freedom of speech and action. But his generous 
motives were wasted, his forbearance misunderstood. 
When at times he was goaded to action he frequently 
chose the wrong moment, and the wrong way. He 
was severe when it would have been better to remain 
mild, and conciliatory when he should have been 
harsh. The sitting of the House continued for 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 311 

twenty-six hours, amid scenes of tumult and disorder. 
A select Committee of the House, appointed to con- 
sider what steps should be taken to prevent wilful ob- 
struction, reported in 1878. They recommended that 
power should be given to the Speaker to "name" any 
member guilty of obstruction, and that it should be 
in the discretion of the House to suspend him for the 
remainder of the sitting : secondly, that all motions for 
the adjournment of the House or a debate should be 
supported by at least twenty members, who should be 
called upon by the Speaker to rise in their places. 
These and other changes were adopted at the opening 
of the session of 1880. 

During 1878 the dissensions in the Irish Home 
Rule Party resulted in its separation into two factions. 
The smaller and more extreme party was led by Mr. 
Parnell, whose agitation had already begun to bear 
evil fruits. With the growth of Mr. Parneirs 
influence there proceeded a steady growth of agrarian 
crime in Ireland. How far Irish politicians may 
morally be held responsible for the violence and 
intimidation, which, beginning with the assassination 
of the Earl of Leitrim in April, 1878, speedily de- 
veloped into a widely organised reign of terror 
throughout Ireland, we are not called upon to deter- 
mine. But it is impossible to deny that the spread of 
agrarian crime followed closely upon the rise of politi- 
cal agitation. During 1879 disorder and crime con- 
tinued to increase. The agitation conducted by Mr. 
Parnell, who made a tour through Ireland and ad- 
dressed a large number of meetings, was aided by the 
fall that had taken place in the price of all agricultural 
produce, poor harvests, and a partial failure of the 
potato crop, leading to severe distress in some localities 



312 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

in the west. Landlords were denounced, a reduction 
of rents demanded, and the system prohibiting anyone 
from taking a farm from which a tenant had been 
evicted for non-payment of rent, was inaugurated. 
Landlords who resorted to eviction were described as 
"enemies of the human race," and Mr. Parnell urged 
that if tenants would only refuse to pay any rent they 
would be able to dictate their own terms. So far the 
Roman Catholic Clergy had remained hostile to the 
new movement. A great meeting held by Mr. Par- 
nell at Westport was condemned by Archbishop Mc- 
Hale as "a combination, organised by a few designing 
men, who, instead of the well-being of the whole 
community, seek only to promote their personal in- 
terests.'' In October the l^ational Irish Land League 
was founded, Mr. Parnell being chosen its President. 
The avowed objects of the League were to secure re- 
ductions of rent, refusal to pay any rent where re- 
ductions were not granted, an entire change in the 
land laws, and the substitution of peasant proprietors 
for landlords. Mr. Parnell carefully avoided any 
breach of the law personally. Other speakers were 
less discreet, and Davitt, Daly, Killen, and Brennan 
were arrested for using seditious language, but were 
released on bail. The Government showed much 
firmness in maintaining law and order, and every 
effort was made to assist localities in which real dis- 
tress prevailed. 

The dissolution took place on March 23rd, 1880, 
and with it ended the Conservative administration. 
During the previous autumn a political campaign 
had been conducted throughout the country by both 
Parties with remarkable energy. Mr. Gladstone 
undertook the first of those campaigns in Mid- 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTRATION. 313 

lothian, whicli were alike astonishing for the energy 
and eloquence which characterised them. In a 
series of speeches, which have rarely been equalled, 
he reviewed every political question of the hour, and 
poured upon his opponents a flood of criticism, sar- 
casm, and invective, which produced an extraordinary 
effect throughout the country. Among his many 
important declarations there was one to which subse- 
quent events lent extraordinary interest. In dealing 
with Home Rule he asked in what way it was related 
to local government, and went on to say : " I am 
friendly to local government. I am friendly to large 
local privileges and powers. I intensely desire to see 
Parliament relieved of some portion of its duties. I 
see the efficiency of Parliament interfered with not 
only by obstruction from Irish members, but even 
more gravely by the enormous weight that is placed 
upon the time and the minds of those whom you 
send to represent you. We have got an over- weighted 
Parliament ; and if Ireland, or any other portion of 
the country, is desirous and able so to arrange its 
affairs, that by taking the local part or some local part 
of its transactions off the hands of Parliament, it can 
liberate and strengthen Parliament for Imperial con- 
cerns, I will give a zealous support to any such scheme. 
One limit, one limit only, I know, to the extension of 
local government. It is this. Nothing can be done, 
in my opinion, by any wise statesman or right-minded 
Briton to weaken or compromise the authority of the 
Imperial Parliament, because the Imperial Parliament 
must be supreme in these three Kingdoms. And 
nothing that creates a doubt upon that supremacy can 
be tolerated by any intelligent and patriotic man."* 

* Mr. Gladstone's Second Midlothian Speech, Nov. 26th 1879. 



314 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Immediately before the dissolution Lord Beacons- 
field addressed a letter to the Duke of Marlborough, 
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in which after stating 
that the condition of that country had long occupied 
the anxious attention of the Government, he said that 
" a danger, in its ultimate results scarcely less dis- 
astrous than pestilence and famine," now distracted 
the Sister Isle. ^'A portion of its population is at- 
tempting to sever the constitutional tie which unites 
it to Great Britain in that bond which has favoured 
the power and prosperity of both. It is to be hoped 
that all men of light and leading will resist this de- 
structive doctrine. The strength of this nation de- 
pends on the unity of feeling which should pervade 
the United Kingdom and its widespread de- 
pendencies." He warned the nation against the 
dangers of a policy of disintegration, and of the crit- 
ical issues which largely depended upon the verdict of 
the country. It is possible that he foresaw the course 
events would subsequently take. But it was not until 
some years later that the public had any suspicion that 
Home Rule would be adopted by the leader of the 
Liberal Party. Mr. Gladstone's declaration in favour 
of maintaining the supremacy of Parliament had 
been so clear and emphatic as to reassure all sections 
of the nation. A suggestion at this time that the 
great leader of the Liberals would capitulate to the 
forces of Irish Nationalism would have been repu- 
diated with indignation. 

The result of the appeal to the constituencies was 
almost a foregone conclusion. Many causes had con- 
spired to bring about a defeat of the Ministry. Great 
depression in trade accompanied by bad seasons had 
caused much suffering and discontent. The Zulu War 
had been unpopular. It was generally thought to 



DISRAELI'S ADMINISTHATION. 315 

* 

have been unnecessary and unjust. But above all 
things Mr. Griadstone's eloquence and destructive 
criticism told against the Conservatives. When the 
contest was over it was found that 355 Liberals, 238 
Conservatives, and 62 Home Rulers had been re- 
turned, giving the Liberals a clear majority of 55. 



316 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTEE XVn. 

LIBERAL STATESMEN AND IRISH AGITATORS. 

From the day the result of the appeal to the coun- 
try was known there was no doubt as to who would be 
the new Prime Minister. JsTominally Lord Harting- 
ton had been the leader of the Liberal Party since 
1875. But during the stormy years that followed, 
it was Mr. Gladstone who had rallied the forces of the 
Opposition, had led the attack time after time, and 
had finally secured the overthrow of the Conserva- 
tive Government. In accordance with custom the 
Queen first sent for Lord Hartington, who made no 
attempt to form a ministry, and the duty was entrusted 
to Mr. Gladstone. Among the other members of the 
new Cabinet were Earl Granville, Foreign Secretary, 
Lord Hartington, Secretary of State for India, Lord 
Kimberley, Secretary for the Colonies, Mr. Forster, 
Chief Secretary for Ireland, Sir William Harcourt, 
Home Secretary, and Mr. Chamberlain, President of 
the Board of Trade. Mr. Gladstone was First Lord 
of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

A question which caused many angry scenes, bitter 
debates, and complicated proceedings, arose on the 
third day of the session of 1880. Among the mem- 
bers returned to the House of Commons was Mr. 
Charles Bradlaugh, who had been elected for 
Northampton. Mr. Bradlaugh was a man who had 
gained notoriety as a lecturer and writer of much 



IRISH AGITATORS. 317 

force and eloquence. He had for some years been 
the exponent of social and religious views which were 
regarded with repugnance by the great mass of the 
nation. Although he disclaimed the term of atheist, 
the theories of which he was the champion, are what 
people generally stigmatise as atheistic. He had as- 
sailed Christianity, and revealed religion in every 
form. An avowal of his opinions had not been forced 
upon him by circumstances. He had not been obliged 
to repudiate belief in the doctrines held by the mass 
of his fellow countrymen in order to avoid doing 
violence to his conscience. On the contrary, he had 
deliberately set himself up as an opponent of Chris- 
tianity in particular, and revealed religion in general; 
and in addition had been an active propagator of the 
most questionable theories of Malthus. Mr. Brad- 
laugh's personal character and private life were 
singularly blameless. But at the time he was elected 
to Parliament it is not too much to say that while he 
had many admirers and sympathisers, he was the in- 
carnation of evil to a very large number of people. 
They detested his religious views ; they disliked the 
manner in which he expounded his opinions and at- 
tacked all religion ; they regarded much of his social 
philosophy as dangerous and immoral. 

After the election of the Speaker, the first business 
in a newly elected House of Commons is the adminis- 
tration of the oath of allegiance to members. This is 
generally a tedious and merely formal business. On 
presenting himself at the table of the House where the 
swearing in takes place, Mr. Bradlaugh claimed to 
be allowed to make an affirmation instead of takingthe 
oath. Called upon by the Speaker to state the reason 
of his claim, Mr. Bradlaugh replied that the Parlia- 
mentary Oaths Act of 1866 had established the right 



318 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

of affirmation under certain conditions, and that for 
some years he had repeatedly "affirmed in the highest 
Courts of Jurisdiction" in the realm. "I am ready," 
he added, "to make the declaration or affirmation of 
allegiance." The Speaker (Mr. Brand) declined to 
make any ruling, and submitted the question to the 
judgment of the House. A select committee was ap- 
pointed to consider the matter, and decided by the 
casting vote of its chairman that the oath should not 
be dispensed with in the case of Mr. Bradlaugh. On 
the 21st of May Mr. Bradlaugh again presented him- 
self at the table and asked to be sworn. To this Sir 
Henry Wolff objected, and moved a resolution that 
Mr. Bradlaugh should not be permitted to take the 
oath. Mr. Gladstone argued that it was not com- 
petent for the House to prevent a duly elected mem- 
ber taking the oath which the law prescribed. The 
resolution was defeated by 289 votes to 214; and a 
second select committee was appointed to inquire into 
Mr. Bradlaugh's claim to be sworn, and into the juris- 
diction of the House to refuse it. The committee by 
a large majority reported against the claim of Mr. 
Bradlaugh, and after a two day's debate the House 
decided on June 22nd that he should not be allowed 
to take the oath. On the following day Mr. Brad- 
laugh renewed his demand. It was again refused, 
and he was ordered to withdraw. He declared the 
order illegal and refused to obey it. Removed by 
the Sergeant-at-Arms, he immediately walked back 
into the House, whereupon he was taken into custody 
and imprisoned in the Clock Tower. On the follow- 
ing day he was released and renewed the contest. On 
the 2nd of July, Mr. Gladstone moved a resolution 
to the effect that every person returned as a member 
of the House of Commons, who claimed to be a person 



IRISH AGITATORS. 319 

permitted by law to make an affirmation instead of 
taking an oath, should, notwithstanding the resolu- 
tion adopted by the House on June 22nd, be permitted 
to make an affirmation in the form prescribed by law, 
subject to any liability by statutes. This was carried 
by 303 votes to 249; and the following day Mr. Brad- 
laugh made the affirmation and took his seat. 

The dispute now entered upon a new phase. Heavy 
penalties are provided by law against any one not fully 
qualified speaking and voting in Parliament. Mr. 
Bradlaugh took part in more than one division. He 
was prosecuted. The Judges decided that the Act 
which enabled Jews, Quakers, and other persons, to 
affirm instead of taking the oath did not extend to the 
present case ; and that Mr. Bradlaugh was incapacita- 
ted for sitting in the House of Commons as he had 
not taken the statutory oath. They added the impor- 
tant declaration that no one could be excluded from 
the Legislature on the ground that he held no religious 
belief. The seat was declared vacant, an d]!^orth amp- 
ton re-elected Mr. Bradlaugh. When he presented 
himself again at the table. Sir Stafford ITorthcote 
carried a resolution asserting that he should not be 
permitted to commit an act of profanation by going 
through the form of taking the oath. Time after 
time Mr. Bradlaugh demanded to be allowed to take 
the oath, only to be refused. He attempted amid 
discreditable scenes to administer the oath to himself; 
he was repeatedly removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, 
and on one occasion had to be forcibly ejected by ten 
policemen. Again and again he resigned his seat, and 
was re-elected by his constituents. 

Petitions for and against Mr. Bradlaugh's admission 
were sent to Parliament ; meetings and counter-demon- 
strations were held throughout the country; and Mr. 



320 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

BrigHt warned tlie House that to continue to exclude 
the duly elected representative of a great constituency, 
whom the courts had declared was not constitutionally 
disqualified from sitting in the Legislature, was a 
dangerous course which might lead to calamitous re- 
sults. But his advice was ignored, and the dispute 
continued until after the next General Election, when 
at the opening of Parliament in 1886 the new Speaker, 
Mr. Arthur Peel (afterwards created Viscount Peel) 
declared that no one had a right to prevent Mr. Brad- 
laugh or any other duly elected member taking the 
oath required by law. Subsequently an Act was 
passed permitting any member to take an afiirmation; 
and just before Mr. Bradlaugh died, in 1891, the 
House generously passed a resolution expunging from 
its records the motions which had been passed for his 
exclusion between 1880 and 1885. 

We have no sympathy with Mr. Bradlaugh's pecu- 
liar opinions; but in looking back upon the conflict 
into which the House of Commons was plunged, it is 
diflicult to escape the conclusion that in the many 
discreditable scenes which occurred Mr. Bradlaugh 
played a more worthy part than his opponents. How- 
ever much we may dislike his opinions, it must be 
admitted that they were sincerely held, and coura- 
geously maintained. For five years he fought a battle 
against overwhelming odds, with patience, earnest- 
ness, and dignity. His refusal to obey the orders of 
the Speaker caused deplorable scenes, but Mr. Brad- 
laugh was acting strictly within his legal and constitu- 
tional rights. H his motives were not lofty, they were 
at least as respectable as those which animated many 
of his opponents, whose chief object was to make party 
capital out of the conflict. In the moderate and con- 
stitutional action of Mr. Gladstone and his coUeagueg; 



IRISH AGITATORS. 321 

extreme partisans saw a cliance of discrediting tlie 
Government, by holding them up as sympathisers with 
an odious atheist. If there were any two men against 
whom it might be thought such a charge would not 
lie, they were Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright, the 
loftiness and sincerity of whose religious convictions 
everyone would now admit; yet it was especially 
through them, and their conduct during the Brad- 
laugh conflict, that attempts were made to strike at 
the Ministry. The controversy is also memorable 
from the fact that it led to the formation of a new 
Party in Parliament, — the famous Fourth Party, 
which curiously enough consisted of only four mem- 
bers. Lord Randolph Churchill, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Sir 
Henry Wolff, and ^Ir. (now Sir John) Gorst. The 
conflict between Mr. Bradlaugh and the House 
afforded Lord Randolph Churchill irresistible oppor- 
tunities of harassing with "impartial energy the leaders 
of the Government and the leaders of the Opposition," 
and he made the most of them. It would be difficult 
to say whether Mr. Gladstone or Sir Stafford Xorth- 
cote suffered most from the jeers and taunts, the wilful 
misrepresentation and the audacious personalities of 
the leader of the Fourth Party. 

The number of Acts added to the Statute Book 
during the session of 1880 was small. The Burial 
Laws Amendment Act put an end to a painful and 
bitter controversy. By the Common Law of England 
everyone is entitled to be buried in the churchyard 
of his or her parish. The right never depended upon 
the creed professed, or the religion of any particular 
church. It was a civil right not a . religious one. 
While it could not be denied, it had long been granted 
under circumstances peculiarly odious and oppressive 
to all ISToncomformists, Until 1880 no form of burial 
31 



322 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

service except that of the Church of England could 
legally be used in any parish churchyard. For years 
the demand for an alteration of the law in the in- 
terests of dissenters had been pressed upon Parlia- 
ment without result. But eventually the change for 
which individual Liberals had fought was effected. 
The new Act provided that upon notice being given 
to the incumbent a burial might be carried out with 
any "Christian and orderly religious service," or with- 
out any service, if the proceedings were not made the 
occasion of bringing into contempt any church or 
denomination. ISTon-Christian rites were specifically 
excluded from the Statute, which far from affording 
any encouragement to irreligion, merely sought to give 
Noncomf ormists in the solemn duty of burying their 
dead the same rights and liberties enjoyed by mem- 
bers of the Church of England. 

Another much needed reform was brought about 
by a measure for the protection of occupiers of land 
against the ravages of hares and rabbits. In many 
instances tenant farmers had suffered heavily through 
the depredations of "ground game." Over-preserva- 
tion of game is generally the policy of rack-rent land- 
lords. Where the landlord is a man of liberal views 
and kindly sentiment nothing could work more ad- 
mirably than the British Land and Game Laws. But 
where the proprietor of the land is not actuated by a 
high sense of duty and consideration for the welfare 
of his fellow-men, he finds in many of those laws 
effective means of oppression. In parts of the coun- 
try the damage caused by ground game, for which 
little or no compensation could be obtained, had 
become a scandal. Farmers saw their crops day by 
day destroyed and could no nothing. To kill one of 
the hares or rabbits which were eating up their sub- 



IRISH AGITATORS. 323 

stance was an indictable offence punishable by fine or 
imprisonment. The Act of 1880 gave the occupier 
of the land the concurrent and inalienable right to 
kill all the ground game on his farm, and made any 
contract he might agree to, waiving that right, in- 
capable of enforcement by law. 

The growing land agitation in Ireland, fostered by 
the Land League under Mr. Parnell, had been de- 
scribed by Lord Salisbury as resembling a wild beast, 
which one could no more satisfy by concession than 
he could keep off a tiger by giving it his hand. But 
at the beginning of his second administration Mr. 
Gladstone had determined to risk the experiment. Ire- 
land was to be conciliated. During his electioneering 
campaign he had appealed to Irish discontent against 
the Government. The appeal had been successful. 
If the new Ministry were not committed to any very 
definite methods of concession, they were pledged 
to attempt a further drastic reform of the land laws. 
The first step m the new policy of conciliation was 
an announcement in the Queen's Speech, at the open- 
infi^ of the session of 1880, that the Peace Preservation 
Act for Ireland, which expired in June, would not be 
renewed. While determined to provide for the 
security of life and property, the Government felt 
confident that nothing beyond the ordinary law, firmly 
administered, was required for the maintenance of 
peace and order. The step was a fatal one. It gave 
rise to terrible consequences. 

Mr. Parnell and his followers were incapable of 
appreciating the high motives by which Mr. Gladstone 
was actuated. In his promises of reform they saw 
not conciliation but weakness. They believed they 
had only to go far enough to extort everything they 
demanded. They understood Mr. Gladstone better 



324 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

than Mr. Gladstone understood himself. In the 
political duel which now began between Mr. Parnell 
and Mr. Gladstone, the Liberal leader was at a hope- 
less disadvantage. He was actuated by the highest 
motives; by a profound desire to benefit the Irish 
people; by a sincere belief in the integrity of his 
opponents; by a conviction that a removal of certain 
grievances would appease Irish agitators. 'No states- 
man has ever been inspired by more generous senti- 
ments. In Mr. Parnell's composition there was not 
a spark of generosity. He was cold, and crafty; he 
looked upon politics as a game; every move was care- 
fully studied; every blunder was taken advantage of, 
every sign of weakness was turned to account. He 
was as unscrupulous as Mr. Gladstone was conscien- 
tious, as unimpassioned as Mr. Gladstone was ardent, 
as cool and calculating as his opponent was rash and 
generous. 

Two Bills dealing with Ireland were brought for- 
ward by the Government. The first, which secured 
the Royal Assent, appropriated public money to be 
spent in carrying out various works, thus affording 
relief in districts where distress was exceptional. The 
compensation for Disturbance Bill, was a temporary 
measure. It conferred upon Irish County Court 
Judges in certain districts, the right to grant, com- 
pensation for improvements in cases where tenants 
were evicted for non-payment of rent. Mr. Glad- 
stone described the Bill as an exceptional measure 
rendered necessary by exceptional circumstances. It 
was framed to meet the pressing needs of thecountiy, 
until a comprehensive land reform bill could be 
passed. In some parts of Ireland a condition almost 
amounting to civil war was admitted to prevail. This 
was less than two months after the Peace Preservation 



IRISH AGITATORS. 325 

Act liad been allowed to expire. Mr. Forster de- 
fended the Bill on entirely different grounds. He did 
not pretend to say that the peace of Ireland could not 
be preserved without the measure. It had been intro- 
duced because ^Hhe ministers wished to be able to en- 
force the law with a good conscience.'' Though 
strongly opposed, the Bill passed the House of 
Commons, but was rejected in the Lords by an over- 
whelming majority. 

Before the adjournment of Parliament Mr. Forster 
stated that while the condition of certain parts of 
Ireland gave cause for anxiety, he was more hopeful 
than ever that there would be no need for exceptional 
legislation to maintain law and order. Events soon 
proved how wrongly he had estimated the situation. 
Freed from all fear of interference, Mr. Parnell and 
a host of unscrupulous agitators lost no opportunity 
of stirring up strife. The Land League had grown 
into a powerful organisation. Its resources were now 
used to the utmost. From one end of Ireland to the 
other the ignorant peasantry were taught that the land 
rightfully belonged to them ; that the payment of rent 
was a grievance; and that landlords were unjust op- 
pressors whom it was within the power of the tenants 
to get rid of altogether. Speaking at Ennis, Mr. Par- 
nell advised the people to treat any one who attempted 
to take a farm from which a tenant had been e\dcted, 
"as if he were the leper of old." He was to be 
"shunned in the street, in the shop, in the market, 
even in the place of worship." The advice was 
adopted. Boycotting was established. 

At this and other meetings Mr. Parneirs speeches 
were, from beginning to end, veiled incitements to out- 
rage. He did not advocate the crimes which were 
daily growing in number. But the ignorant peas- 



326 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

antry who crowded to liear him speak, went away with 
the impression that in resisting the law and resorting 
to ^dolence they were acting with the full approval 
of their leaders, and in a manner that would obtain 
for them valuable concessions. The tenant-farmers 
were told that if they refused as a body to pay any 
rent the landlords would be helpless. In a speech at 
Longford, Mr. Parnell divided land-reformers into 
two classes, — those who demanded that the Govern- 
ment should fix the rent which the tenant should pay 
as a never-ceasing tax; and those who claimed that 
the tenants had for centuries been rack-rented, had 
long since paid the landlord for the fee-simple of the 
land, and in justice were entitled to restitution instead 
of being asked to pay any more. Between these two 
opinions the Land League halted. "The extreme 
limits of our demands," Mr. Parnell added, "must be 
measured, when the time comes, by the result of your 
exertions this winter." 

One of the first results of these "exertions" was the 
murder of Lord Mountmorres, who on September 
25th was shot witliin a mile of his residence in County 
Galway. The crime produced a great sensation. A-t 
this period none of the Irish agitators, except Mr. John 
Dillon, entered a protest against murder and deeds of 
violence. Some of them, like Mr. Parnell, were too 
astute openly to advocate crime; they were equally 
guarded not to denounce it. Wherever the Land 
League held its meetings, outrages sprang up. A 
reign of terror was gradually being extended through- 
out Ireland. This was the response to Mr. Gladstone's 
first overtures of conciliation. 

But unless Ireland was to be allowed to lapse into 
a state of anarchy something had to be done. After 
repeated meetings of the Cabinet additional troops 



lElSH AGITATORS. 327 

were despatched to Ireland, and the prosecution of 
the leaders of the Land League was begun. Fourteen 
members, including Mr. Parnell, were indicted for 
conspiring to prevent the payment of rents, to defeat 
the law, to prevent the reletting of farms, to create ill- 
will between different classes, and to commit other 
similar offences. The prosecutions were openly 
laughed to scorn by the incriminated persons. They 
attended Land League meetings more frequently and 
indulged in more violent language than before. The 
authorities were held up to ridicule for attempting to 
prosecute them, l^o one besides Mr. Gladstone and 
his colleagues believed there was a chance of the 
prosecutions being successful. 'No Irish Jury could 
be got who would convict the heads of the Land 
League. Before the trial began all possible jurymen 
were warned that if the heads of the League were con- 
victed, it would mean ruin to those who found them 
guilty. At the conclusion of the trial on January 
24th, 1881, the Jury disagreed, and the defendants 
were discharged. 

It is scarcely possible now to realise the condition 
into which Ireland had been plunged. Speaking at 
the Lord Mayor's Banquet, in ISTovember, 1880, Mr. 
Gladstone acknowledged that the first obligation in- 
cumbent upon the Ministry was "to protect every 
citizen in the enjoyment of his life and of his prop- 
erty.'^ The sentiment was admirable. Let us con- 
trast it with the state of things which existed in Ire- 
land under what Mr. Parnell termed the "Christian 
and charitable" plan of treating people as if they 
were lepers. Near Lough Mask, in County Mayo, 
Captain Boycott rented a large farm, and was agent 
for Lord Erne's property. Acting on the advice 
persistently urged by the Land League, Lord Erne's 



328 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

tenantry tendered not their rents which were due, 
bnt the amount they considered they ought to pay. 
The offer was naturally declined, and as they then 
refused to pay any rent at all, Captain Boycott took 
out ejectment processes. The process-server was 
roughly used, and the following day all labourers and 
servants in Captain Boycott's employ were warned 
to leave. Refusal was impossible. Every servant 
instantly quitted the place. The animals on the 
farm were left uncared for; the crops lay rotting in 
the fields. Local shopkeepers were forbidden to have 
any dealings with ^Hhe leper" ; the postman who car- 
ried his letters was threatened, even telegraph mes- 
sengers were warned. Captain Boycott was effec- 
tively isolated. Ruin stared him in the face. When 
the facts became known a relief expedition was 
organised in Ulster. Within a few days £800 was 
subscribed, and hundreds of men volunteered to 
march to Lough Mask and save Captain Boycott's 
crops. One hundred were chosen, but their departure 
was forbidden by the Government. ISTine hundred 
soldiers were sent to Claremorris and Ballinrobe, in 
the neighborhood of the farm, to keep the peace, and 
fifty volunteers from Cavan and Monaghan were em- 
ployed to gather in the crops. When the task was 
completed, and the troops were withdrawn, Captain 
Boycott and his family had to flee the country. Their 
lives would not have been worth an hour's purchase 
if they had remained. 

The Land League was triumphant. In a letter to 
the sympathisers in America, who paid the expenses 
of the Irish agitators, Mr. Parnell boasted that every 
pound of turnips and potatoes saved on Boycott's 
farm had cost the Government a shilling. The 
struggle had proved that if his advice were followed 



IRISH AGITATORS. 329 

law and authority could be defied and the landlords 
ruined. " Boycotting " was preached throughout the 
country, and the doctrine was enforced by the organi- 
sation of the Land League. Local Courts were 
established by the League, and inquiry instituted into 
the conduct of everyone denounced. If the accused 
were found guilty of having violated any of the 
orders of the Land League, the sentence of " boy- 
cott " was pronounced against them : and they were 
ruined. IsTo tenant dared to pay his full rent. 'No 
tradesman dared to deal with those against whom the 
League pronounced its anathema. Shopkeepers who 
refused to subscribe to the League's funds lost their 
trade. In three out of the four provinces of Ire- 
land every market was closed against the cattle and 
produce of landlords, farmers, and agents, who fell 
under the ban of Mr. ParnelFs organisation. I^o one 
dared to buy from or to sell to a boycotted victim. 
The condition of the country was without parallel in 
the history of civilisation. 

This was the condition of things when Mr. Glad- 
stone declared that the first duty of the Ministry was 
"to protect every citizen in the enjoyment of his life 
and of his property.^' It remained the condition of 
Ireland for nearly six months afterwards. The 
Cabinet was hopelessly divided. On the one side 
stood Mr. Bright and those who believed in his dic- 
tum that force was no remedy; on the other were Mr. 
Forster and the members of the Ministry who held 
that the first duty of a government was to maintain 
law and order. Between his ardent desire to im- 
prove the Irish land laws, and his anxiety to do his 
duty in protecting innocent citizens, Mr. Gladstone 
succeeded in doing nothing. He persuaded himself 
that the success of Mr. ParnelFs Campaign was due 



330 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

to the defects of the land system, that boycotting was 
the result of intolerable grievances, that peace and 
prosperity would return the moment he improved the 
land laws. Events proved he was mistaken. 

As boycotting increased, agrarian crime began to 
diminish. The leaders of the Land League who had 
formerly abstained from condemning assassination, 
now discouraged bloodshed. They wielded a force 
even more terrible than that fear of personal out- 
rage, upon which the Land League had been founded. 
The coAvardly villains who skulked behind hedges and 
shot men in the back, might miss their victim. But 
when the Land League ordered the boycott of an in- 
dividual, escape was impossible. His commercial 
ruin was inevitable. The labour of a lifetime could 
be destroyed in an instant. Agrarian crime, form- 
erly the strength of the Land League, had become 
a source of Aveakness. Boycotting was more effec- 
tive and less dangerous. It was a splendid weapon, 
as one speaker declared, ^'better than any eighty- 
ton gun." An address was therefore issued to the 
Irish people. The Land League disclaimed all con- 
nection with outrages, strongly deprecated them, 
and warned the peasants that violence might defeat 
the ends of the League by giving an excuse for 
coercion. Landlordism was now "gasping out its 
criminal life" ; to "consummate its death" it was only 
necessary to follow the rules and teachings of the 
League for "resolute combination.'' Acts of violence 
against persons decreased; but intimidation by the 
sending of threatening letters, the digging of graves 
before the doors of unpopular individuals, the abomi- 
nable maiming of cattle, and other methods, continued 
to flourish. To repress the crimes it had fostered 
was beyond the power of the Land League. 



IRISH AGITATORS. 331 

The enormous success of Mr. Parneirs agitation 
was due to several causes. It was not due, as party 
writers affirmed, to the iniquity of the Irish Land 
Laws. Those laws, as Mr. Gladstone admitted, "only 
differed from the English law in that they were more 
favourable to the tenant.'' It was not due, as alleged 
by Irish agitators, to the iniquitous conduct of the 
main body of Irish landlords. Mr. Gladstone in his 
speech on April 7th, 1881, vindicated the Irish land- 
lords as a body from the imputations cast upon them. 
By a limited number of landlords, mostly absentees, 
unjust rents had been exacted, and had often been 
enforced by eviction. But although harsh and un- 
just landlords were the exception and not the rule, 
the virtues of the many were eclipsed by the dark 
deeds of the few. The Parnellites were not con- 
cerned in denouncing bad landlords, but all landlords. 
In other words the objects of Mr. ParnelFs campaign 
were not to secure justice for Ireland, the reform of 
abuses, the concession of rights and liberties, but to 
destroy the authority of the law, to replace order by 
anarchy, to drive the landlords as a class out of the 
country, to hand their property over to the tenants, 
and to force Great Britain to grant Ireland complete 
legislative independence. Mr. Parnell and his fol- 
lowers were justly described by Mr. Gladstone as 
"marching through rapine to the dismemberment of 
the Empire." 

But apart from the difficulties created by the Land 
League agitation, and the neglect of the Government 
to maintain law and order, there were grave causes of 
discontent in Ireland. A succession of bad seasons 
had produced acute distress. For agriculturists 
throughout the United Kingdom, 1879 had proved one 
of the most disastrous years of the century. 'No rise 



332 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

in prices compensated farmers for the deficiency of 
their crops. Owing to the importation of vast sup- 
plies from abroad the general level of prices for 
agricultural products had been steadily declining dur- 
ing these years, which effected the ruin of thousands 
dependent upon the land. Local causes aggravated 
the evil in Ireland. On small holdings the margin 
between prosperity and disaster is a very narrow one. 
The tenants had few resources to fall back upon. 
They could not tide over a season of adversity. In 
most parts of the country there were no industries 
or manufactures. In three out of the four provinces 
the middle classes were small in number and insignifi- 
cant in wealth. There were only the landowners, 
and the peasantry. In the majority of cases land- 
lords strained every nerve to aid their tenants. But 
the effects of the efforts of the many were more than 
counteracted by the indifference or harshness of the 
few. These were the most potent causes of discon- 
tent. There w^ere others of importance. The Land 
Act of 1870 had proved very defective. It had not 
secured for tenants the rights it had sought to estab- 
lish. Passed to redress acute grievances and allay 
agitation, it had failed to remedy the one, and con- 
sequently had stimulated the other. Bad seasons in- 
stead of driving the people away from the land, only 
tended to aggravate the evils arising from the multi- 
plication of ridiculously small holdings. ^'Land 
hunger,'' the irresistible attraction of the soil for the 
Irish peasant, led to farms barely sufficient to sup- 
port one family, being split up into still smaller hold- 
ings. This was the e\dl which lay at the root of the 
Irish land system, and was largely responsible for the 
poverty of the peasantry, and the acute distress 
which invariably resulted from bad seasons. 



IRISH AGITATORS. 333 

Parliament was assembled on January 7tli. In the 
Queen's Speech the social condition of Ireland was 
declared to be alarming. Agrarian crimes had multi- 
plied, the administration of justice had been frus- 
trated, an extended system of terror had been estab- 
lished, paralysing alike ^^the exercise of private rights 
and the performance of civil duties." To remedy 
this state of things the Government asked for excep- 
tional powers. The theory that force was no remedy 
had been abandoned. The Protection of Persons 
and Property Bill was introduced by Mr. Forster. 
It provided that specially disturbed districts in Ire- 
land might be proclaimed. Within these areas per- 
sons suspected of high treason, treason-felony, trea- 
sonable practices, intimidation, inciting to acts calcu- 
lated to lead to violence and the resistance of the law, 
might be arrested and detained pending their trial. 
The exceptional powers conferred upon the Grovern- 
ment were only to continue in force till October, 1882. 
A second measure, the Peace Preservation Bill, 
which was brought forward on March 2nd, restricted 
the importation and carrying of arms in Ireland, 
enabled the houses of suspected persons to be searched 
for arms between sunrise and sunset, and provided 
for the summary conviction and imprisonment for 
not longer than three months of all persons found 
guilty. It was proposed that these alterations of the 
law should remain in force for five years. 

The proposals of the Government were resisted by 
the Parnellites by resolute and organised obstruction, 
and by an extreme abuse of the ample facilities which 
the rules of the House of Commons afforded to im- 
pede legislation. From the beginning of the ses- 
sion the credit and authority of the House were 
brought into contempt. A resolution moved by Mr. 



334: POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Gladstone, giving the Irish Bills precedence over the 
standing orders, was only carried after a continuous 
sitting of twenty-two hours. The sitting of the 
House which began on January 30th lasted without 
intermission for forty-two hours. It was only ended 
by the resolute action of the Speaker. On resum- 
ing the Chair on the morning of February 1st, Mr. 
Peel declared that the legislative powers of the 
House were paralysed, and that he was satisfied he 
should best carry out his duties by declining to call 
upon any more members to speak, and proceeding at 
once to put the question. On the following day Mr. 
Gladstone proposed a resolution vesting large addi- 
tional powers in the Speaker. An interruption by 
Mr. Dillon led to his being "named," suspended, and 
removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms. Mr. Parnell 
moved that Mr. Gladsone be no longer heard, and, 
refusing to obey the Speaker, was also suspended. 
Mr. Finegan continued the interruption with a simi- 
lar result ; and then twenty-eight Irish members were 
suspended in a body. Five other Irishmen were 
suspended separately, and the regulations proposed 
by the Government endowing the Speaker Avith dicta- 
torial authority over the proceedings of the House, 
were ado]ited. During the brief time Mr. Parnell 
had sat in the House he had done more to discredit 
the proceedings of Parliament, and to restrict the 
rights of minorities and the freedom of debate, than 
the combined action of all members of the House 
during the previous two hundred years. Until Mr. 
Parnell was returned for County Meath, there never 
had been a member of the House whose conduct was 
not largely regulated by motives of self-respect, and 
regard for the traditions and forms of the House of 
Commons. But Mr. Parnell neither respected him- 



IRISH AGITATORS. 335 

self nor the assembly of whicli he was a member. 
The motives that constrained other men, left him 
free, the limitations by which other agitators had 
felt themselves bound, did not exist for him. 

On the Yth of April, Mr. Gladstone introduced his 
Irish Land Bill. It was a highly complicated meas- 
ure. Its cardinal feature was the creation of a court 
for the purpose of dealing with all differences be- 
tween landlord and tenant. Appeal to the Court 
was optional not compulsory. At first it was pro- 
posed that tenants only should have the right of 
direct access to the judicial tribunal, but the exclu- 
sion of the landlords had to be abandoned. The 
great diversity of conditions under which land was 
held in Ireland, and the prevalence of local customs 
which had taken deep root in the country, were 
cogent reasons for making it optional whether re- 
course should be had to the Court. Every tenant 
was given the right to go into the court to have fixed 
for his holding a ^' judicial rent,'' which, when fixed, 
would endure for fifteen years. During that time 
there could be no eviction except for specific breach 
of covenants or non-payment of rent. The landlord 
was given no power of resumption during that period ; 
his remedy took the form of a compulsory sale of 
the tenant right. At the conclusion of the statutory 
term of fifteen years, application might be made to 
the court for a renewal of tenancy, toties quoties. 
If it were renewed, the conditions as to eviction 
would remain, but the landlord would have a preemp- 
tion of the tenant's right if the holder wished to sell. 
A land Commission was created with power to assist 
tenants to purchase their holdings, and to purchase 
estates from willing landlords for the purpose of re- 
selling them, where three-fourths of the tenants were 



336 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ready to buy. Three-fourths of the purchase-money 
was to be advanced by the state, and the tenants were 
not to be precluded from borrowing the remainder. 
Advances were also to be made for agricultural im- 
provements, including the reclamation of waste lands, 
and for the purposes of emigration. Xo limit was 
placed on the gross sum to be advanced. Summing 
up the provisions of the Bill Mr. Gladstone said its 
general outcome would be that increase of rent would 
be restrained by certain rules, compensation for dis- 
turbance would be regulated according to different 
rates, the right to sell the tenant's interest would be 
universally established, evictions would only be per- 
missible for default, and resumption by the landlord 
would be impossible, except for cause both reasonable 
and grave, which cause might be brought in ques- 
tion before the Court. 

After protracted debates, the Irish Land Bill was 
passed. The measure did much to aid the settlement 
of the vexed land question; but it contained many 
grave defects, and lacked the essence of finality. Two 
serious defects speedily made themselves felt. The 
provisions for dealing with arrears of rent were 
totally inadequate. Large numbers of evictions took 
place before tenants could obtain relief from the 
Land Courts. In addition to being costly, the legal 
machinery created for settling disputes was slow 
and cumbrous in its working. As the Government 
had not hesitated to confiscate a considerable part of 
the property of the landlords, it would have been 
wise to have gone a step further, and either to have 
cancelled the arrears of rent, which hung round the 
necks of thousands of tenants like millstones, or to 
have prohibited any eviction being carried out for the 
recovery of arrears, pending the decision of the Land 
Courts, 



IKISH AGITATORS. 337 

Mr. Gladstone's hope tliat the substantial conces- 
sions made by the Act would be accepted by Irish 
politicians as an earnest of the desire of the Govern- 
ment to deal in a broad and liberal spirit with all 
real grievances, was doomed to be disappointed. In- 
stead of putting an end to the agitation of the Land 
League, the generous measure of reform only added 
fresh fuel to the flames of discontent and disorder. 
The people were incited to continue the struggle until 
the entire ^ ^English garrison' ' were driven out of the 
country, and complete independence was won for Ire- 
land. 

During the Land League agitation the Roman 
Catholic clergy had been divided. By Archbishop 
McCabe the League had from the first been de- 
nounced. But his influence was outweighed by 
Archbishop Croke, who supported the movement, 
while most of the priests in the rural districts sided 
with the agitation. But after the passing of the 
Land Act thej unholy alliance between the Church 
and the Land League was practically dissolved. The 
heads of the Roman Catholic Church were not pre- 
pared to endorse the action of the Parnellites in try- 
ing to prevent tenants taking advantage of the new 
law. Though the Catholic Church in Ireland has 
done many things which even its best friends must 
deplore, its influence on the whole has been on the 
side of law and order. It is a wholesome and conser- 
vative force, not a revolutionary and destructive one. 

Considering the intolerable condition of Ireland, 
the large powers conferred upon the Government by 
the Coercion Acts, had been used with great modera- 
tion. Only 192 "suspects" were detained in prison at 
the end of August. Mr. Dillon was the only member 
of Parliament who had been arrested, l^ut before 
22 



338 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Parliament rose lie had been liberated, and as far 
as possible, the Government had avoided all action 
that would unnecessarily embitter feeling or inflame 
passion. Most of the men incarcerated thoroughly 
deserved Mr. Forster's description of them as "con- 
temptible, dissolute ruffians and blackguards.'' 
Many districts had been proclaimed, illegal agitation 
had been repressed, but the liberty of speech and of 
the individual had not been unduly restricted. The 
existence of extensive Fenian conspiracies, fermented 
and supported by money from America, the necessity 
of protecting life and property, had rendered an ex- 
tensive use of the exceptional powers granted by 
Parliament, unavoidable. But during the considera- 
tion of the Land Bill the Government had striven not 
to do anything which would prevent that measure 
being accepted as a generous attempt to settle the 
grievances of the Irish peasantry. This moderation 
was not without good effect. It did much to concili- 
ate the Roman Catholic clergy, and the more intelli- 
gent class of tenants. But moderation and concilia- 
tion were wasted upon Mr. Parnell and his followers. 
Their object was not to redress Irish grievances, but 
to foment them. 

1^0 sooner had the Land Act been added to the 
Statute Book, than it was denounced by the Land 
League as a sham, "a mere paltry mitigation of the 
horrors of landlordism.'' Mr. Parnell urged the ten- 
ants not to apply to the Land Courts, and not to 
avail themselves of any of the provisions of the Act, 
except the clauses relating to borrowing money. He 
promised that the true nature of the Act would be 
revealed by submitting to the Courts test cases from 
estates in different parts of Ireland. These would 
be fought at the expense of the Land League, and 



IRISH AGITATORS. 339 

tenants were warned by resolutions of the League 
against paying any rent, or taking any action until 
those test cases had been decided. In other words 
a conspiracy had been organised to defeat the law, 
and wreck the Land Act. 

Mr. Gladstone, in a memorable speech delivered 
at Leeds, on October 7th, warned Mr. Parnell that 
the resources of civilisation had not yet been ex- 
hausted. He declared that by his action Mr. Parnell 
had shown a desire ^^to stand as Aaron stood, be- 
tween the living and the dead, but to stand there, not 
as Aaron had stood to arrest, but to spread the 
plague." The true object of the leader of the Land 
League and his myrmidons was to prevent peace be- 
ing restored to Ireland. They were not ashamed to 
preach the doctrines of public plunder. Mr. Parnell 
had said that whereas the rental of Ireland was seven- 
teen millions of money, the landlords were entitled to 
nothing but the original value of the land before a 
spade was put into it, which would not amount to 
more than three millions. Was not that the promul- 
gation of the gospel of sheer plunder ? A handful 
of Irishmen were not ashamed to advocate how the 
power of England might by secret treachery be de- 
stroyed; how British ships might be blown up, and 
those who resisted Irish demands be removed by the 
knife of the assassin. To re-read by the light of 
subsequent events this speech in which Mr. G-ladstone 
passionately denounced "the sheer lawlessness'' of 
Mr. Parnell and his followers, is a curious experience. 
Truth is stranger than fiction. In the pages of Lewis 
Carroll, in the topsy-turvy realm of Mr. Gilbert's 
imagination, is there anything more absurd, more 
ludicrously improbable than that an English states- 
man of commanding genius, of lofty and noble char- 



340 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

acter^ should within a comparatively few months be- 
come the ally, the supporter, almost the friend, of 
the unscrupulous, and utterly selfish agitator whom 
he had solemnly denounced, and whom he was about 
to thrust into prison? 

On October 13th, Mr. Parnell was arrested. The 
Land League was suppressed as an illegal organisa- 
tion, and Mr. Dillon, Mr. O'Brien, and others of its 
officials were sent to join their leader in his enforced 
retirement. A violent and treasonable manifesto 
was issued by the imprisoned agitators calling upon 
the people not to pay a penny of rent, to destroy land- 
lordism, and to stand by the League which had proved 
too strong for English despotism. The ]^o-rent 
Manifesto fell rather flat. It was condemned by 
Archbishop Croke, the most influential of the Catho- 
lic prelates, who advised the people not to reject the 
benefits of the Land Act. Though the payment of 
rent was to a great extent withheld in many districts, 
tenants readily took advantage of the Land Courts. 
Before the end of ]S^ovember over 70,000 cases had 
been entered for trial. Sufficient work had been pro- 
vided to keep the Land Commissioners and their as- 
sistants busy for years to come. Instead of having 
nothing to do, the Courts became hopelessly con- 
gested. Of the decisions delivered, over sixty per 
cent were appealed against, and landlords and ten- 
ants were plunged into ruinous litigation, from which 
they were only rescued in later years by further leg- 
islation. 

The reign of terror in Ireland had largely been 
promoted from the United States. Fenian organisa- 
tions, whose avowed objects were outrage and assas- 
sination, had been formed in 'New York and Chicago, 
and large sums were contributed by the disaffected 



IRISH AGITATORS. 341 

Irish find anarchists of all nationalities in Amer- 
ica, to carry out dynamite explosions, murders, and 
other acts of violence. In certain newspapers pub- 
lished in the United States incitements to outrage 
and intimidation were advocated with impunity. 
Representations to the Government at Washington 
led to no result. A dynamite explosion at Salford 
was attended with fatal results; attempts were made 
to blow up the Mansion House in London, the bar- 
racks at Chester and Edinburgh, to destroy the Liver- 
pool Town Hall and police barracks, and by means 
of infernal machines to sink British steamers in their 
passage across the Atlantic. These and a score of 
other outrages were planned and perpetrated by mis- 
creants hired and despatched from the United States 
for the purpose. 

Apart from the storm and stress of its political 
events, the year 1881 will long be remembered by the 
death, on April the 19 th, of Lord Beaconsfield, at the 
age of seventy-six. In him there passed away a 
great and beneficent force from political life. With 
much of his policy we may not agree. But time has 
tended rather to increase than to diminish his repu- 
tation as a far-sighted, sagacious, and patriotic states- 
man. In many respects he was in advance of his 
time. As early as 1872, when Imperial Federation 
had almost been unheard of, and was regarded as an 
idle dream, Mr. Disraeli looked forward to the re- 
construction of the Empire, and to the necessity of 
responding ^^to those distant sympathies that may 
become the source of incalculable strength and hap- 
piness to our land." He realised that some day a 
great policy of Imperial consolidation would spring 
up, and that a representative council would be estab- 
lished in London to bring "the Colonies into constant 



342 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

and continuous relations with the home Govern- 
ment."* At the dawn of the new century these 
words sound like a prophecy. No other British 
statesman of the century grasped so fully what the 
Empire meant. In its destinies he had a profound 
helief, and did not shrink from facing the responsi- 
bilities involved. It has been justly said that "the 
underlying motive of his speculations was the need 
which he felt of closer bonds of social interdepend- 
ence, such as those w^hich the great revolution had 
unloosed." He taught the privileged classes of 
Great Britain to take a larger and less selfish view 
of questions affecting their own interests. Under cir- 
cumstances that might well have daunted even his 
high courage, he created a new party, led it to vic- 
tory, and left it a united and powerful organisation. 
Though imperial rather than democratic in his sym- 
pathies he never lost touch with the needs and aspira- 
tions of the people. His counsels were always 
marked by moderation and sound judgment. Few 
Parliamentary leaders were ever so brilliant and so 
safe. He had nothing of the volcanic energy which 
rendered Mr. Gladstone so destructive and construc- 
tive a force in politics. But he had a sagacity, a 
sound and steady judgment, a fine insight into the 
character and motives of men, which were denied 
his great political opponent. While Mr. Gladstone 
made the deeper impression upon the social and polit- 
ical history of the United Kingdom, Lord Beacons- 
field's services to the Empire will probably be re- 
membered when posterity has forgotten many of the 
smaller questions which consumed Mr. Gladstone's 
existence. In the history of political progress Mr. 

*Mr. Disraeli at the Crystal Palace in 1872. 



IKISH AGITATORS. 343 

Disraeli was essentially a regenerating but conserva- 
tive and constructive force. He had the genius to 
discern the inherent vitality of historic institutions, 
and to re-awaken the feelings of all classes for the 
improvement and protection of all that was best 
worth preservation. Future generations will prob- 
ably confirm the verdict that he was a man who 
worthily sustained a great part, and accomplished 
much in parliamentary and national life which de- 
serves to be held in grateful remembrance. 

The session of 1882 opened amid high hopes. 
The previous year had been exclusively devoted to 
Irish questions. Large arrears of legislation were 
now to be overtaken. But the months that might 
have been fruitful of reform were destined to bring 
forth very different results. Three Acts of import- 
ance were, however, added to the Statute Book. The 
provisions of old-age annuities, and life insurance 
were added to the duties of the Post Office Savings 
Bank. On the initiative of Lord Cairns, the Lord 
Chancellor under the recent Conservative Govern- 
ment, a reform which had been long demanded, was 
carried out. A large amount of the land was held 
under entail, which could only be broken by the con- 
sent of the tenant-for-life and the next two heirs. 
By the Settled Land Act owners who have only a life 
interest in estates were enabled to sell. The money 
arising from the sale is invested under the control of 
the trustees of the settlement, or of the Court, whose 
duty it is to see that the interest of the heirs is not 
impaired. After many delays married women were 
at last granted protection for their property. Under 
the common law, a woman's personal and real estate 
became upon marriage the property of her husband. 
This, in a large number of cases, resulted in abuses 



344 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

and hardships. By the Married Women's Property 
Act all property, of whatever kind, bequeathed to a 
married woman, or acquired by her own efforts, was 
placed beyond the control of the husband, and secured 
to her absolutely as though she were single. 

The abuse of the Rules of Procedure in the House 
of Commons necessitated drastic reform. Public 
business had been paralysed, legislation well-nigh 
rendered impossible, by the obstructive tactics de- 
veloped under the leadership of Mr. Parnell. It was 
imperative that the House should regain authority 
over its own debates. The chief interest centered in 
the first of the new rules, which provided for the 
cloture by a bare majority. More than once it 
seemed likely tliat this proposal, so opposed to the 
principles and traditions of British parliamentary 
procedure, would lead to the defeat of the Ministry. 
It was only after long and weary debates that the 
resolutions of the Government were at last carried. 
If the proposals erred it was on the side of weak- 
ness, and future governments found it necessary to 
render the rules more stringent and effectual. 

In Ireland the policy of the Government had been 
attended with only a limited measure of success. 
Though the Land League had been suppressed and 
its offices seized, it was still a formidable organisa- 
tion. Boycotting had been curtailed, law and order 
had been partly restored, but outrages were still nu- 
merous, and intimidation flourished. Though the ex- 
ceptional powers granted to the Government were 
adequate, the pro\dsions for enforcing them were far 
from being satisfactory. In view of the enormous 
difficulties to which the working of the Land Act 
had given rise, further legislation was imperative. 
A proposal urged by Mr. W. H. Smith, that all 



IRISH AGITATORS. ^45 

Irish tenants should by the aid of the State be en- 
abled to purchase their holdings at a fair and just 
price from the landlords, was not entertained at the 
time ; but it was subsequently embodied in a measure 
which proved of great value in settling the Irish 
Land question, by turning a disaffected peasantry 
into citizens interested in the peace of the country 
in which they have a material stake. The question 
of arrears of rent was one of great urgency. The 
discussion upon a bill introduced by Mr. Redmond 
showed that until this defect of the Land Act was 
remedied the peace of Ireland could not be secured. 
From Mr. Gladstone's speech in discussing the bill, 
it was evident that the Government recognised the 
necessity of action; while the marked satisfaction 
with which the vague and guarded words of the 
Prime Minister were received by the Irish members, 
aroused a general suspicion that events were in pro- 
gress of which the public had no knowledge. A few 
days later the resignation was announced of the Lord- 
Lieutenant, Earl Cowper, who was promptly re- 
placed by Earl Spencer. Mr. Eorster, who refused 
to accept the new departure upon which Mr. Glad- 
stone had suddenly determined, ceased to be a mem- 
ber of the Government. On the following day. May 
2nd, Mr. Gladstone announced that Messrs. Parnell, 
Dillon, and O'Kelly, the three members of Parlia- 
ment under arrest, had been liberated without condi- 
tions or stipulations; that all other "suspects'' not 
directly implicated in crime would be discharged; 
that the Protection of Persons and Property Act 
would not be renewed; and that the Government in- 
tended to take counsel with the Irish representa- 
tives on the amendment of the Land Act. 

The statement that Mr. Parnell and the other two 



346 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

members had been released without conditions save 
rise to a bitter controversy. Mr. Gladstone admit- 
ted that the ground of the release was information 
received by the Government that if the question of 
arrears were settled, the Land League members would 
^' arrange themselves on the side of law and order." 
But he denied that there was any arrangement be- 
tween Mr. Parnell and the Government. Mr. 
Forster gave a very different view of the transaction. 
Pie accused his late colleagues of having bought 
obedience and made blackmail arrangements with 
law-breakers. Mr. Parnell's version of the story con- 
flicted in certain essential details with the statement 
made by Mr. Gladstone. A demand was made that 
the letters which constituted the so-called '^ Treaty 
of Kilmainham," between members of the Govern- 
ment and Mr. Parnell, should be produced. Mr. 
Gladstone held that the correspondence could not be 
officially circulated, and reiterated his denial of the 
existence of any " recognised or implied contract " 
between the Government and the leader of the Home 
Pule party. Mr. Parnell volunteered to furnish the 
evidence needed, to show what had been the attitude 
of the imprisoned members. It came out that the 
intermedium between Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cham- 
berlain, and Mr. Parnell, had been Captain O'Shea. 
The accuracy of the Avording of the concluding para- 
graph of his letter which Mr. Parnell read to the 
House was challenged by Mr. Forster, who pro- 
duced a correct copy of the document. A very 
material omission had been made, the blame for 
which Mr. Parnell saddled upon O'Shea. In his let- 
ter Mr. Parnell stated that if the question of arrears 
of rent were dealt with, and the Land Act amended 
in certain particulars, these changes would be '^ re- 



IRISH AGITATORS. 347 

garded by the country as a practical settlement of 
the land question, and loouldy I feel sure, enable us to 
co-operate cordially for the future with the Liberal 
party in forwarding Liberal principles, and that the 
Government at the end of the session would, from 
the state of the country, feel themselves thoroughly 
justified in dispensing with future coercive meas- 
ures." The words placed in italics were those which 
had been omitted from the copy of the letter which 
Mr. Parnell read to the House. But this was not 
the only evidence that the Government were willing 
to ally themselves with the men who had originated 
boycotting, and created a reign of terror in Ireland. 
O'Shea, after conferences with Mr. Parnell, had 
sought an interview with Mr. Forster, had shown 
him the letter from which we have quoted, remark- 
ing that "he hoped it would be a satisfactory expres- 
sion of union with the Liberal party." In reply, 
Mr. Forster said, "It comes to this — that upon our 
doing certain things he will help us to prevent out- 
rages." O'Shea urged that if the wording of Mr. 
ParnelFs letter was not satisfactory it could be 
altered. "What is obtained is that the conspiracy 
which has been used to get up boycotting and out- 
rages, will now be used to put them down, and that 
there will be a union in the Liberal party." Entirely 
misunderstanding the effect such proposals would 
make upon the mind of Mr. Forster, O'Shea went on 
to explain that Mr. Parnell hoped to aid the Govern- 
ment by employing a certain person, who was then 
abroad, to put down conspiracy or agitation, as "he 
knew all its details in the West." The certain per- 
son was the notorious scoundrel Sheridan, for whose 
arrest Mr. Forster had issued a warrant. These 
confidences, which Mr. Forster regarded with abhor- 



348 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

rence, Avere entertained by the other members of the 
Government. Mr. Parnell's compact was accepted. 
Mr. Forster resigned. The new policy was in- 
augurated; but the disclosures shook the confidence 
of many supporters of the Government. 

Mr. Gladstone's new message of peace and the re- 
lease of the Parnellites was announced on May 2nd. 
Four days later Lord Frederick Cavendish, the suc- 
cessor to Mr. Forster in the Chief Secretaryship, and 
Mr. T. H. Burke, the permanent Under-Secretary for 
Ireland, were murdered as they were walking 
through the Phoenix Park, in Dublin. This terrible 
and savage crime sent a thrill of horror throughout 
the civilised world. It was not more brutal than the 
assassinations of Mrs. Smythe and Mr. Herbert, which 
had taken place a short time before. But the official 
position of the victims, and the circumstances under 
which the crime was committed, brought home to the 
Government and to the people the desperate char- 
acter of the revolutionary forces at work in Ireland. 
Mr. George Trevelyan became Chief Secretary. A 
bill of a very stringent nature for the prevention 
of crime was introduced by Sir William Harcourt. 
Its provisions were specially directed against secret 
societies and illegal combinations. Trial by jury 
was suspended in certain cases; the conditions under 
which trials were held were varied to ensure the con- 
viction of guilty persons; intimidation, boycotting, 
secret conspiracies, and illegal assemblies, were de- 
fined as criminal offences. The Alien Act was re- 
vived, and the power to expel suspicious foreigners 
was extended to Great Britain. 

It was hoped that as the Parnellites had expressed 
horror of the Phoenix Park murders, which were said 
to be the work of American conspirators, the Pre- 



IRISH AGITATORS. 349 

veution of Crimes Bill would not be seriously opposed. 
The measure, as Mr. Bright urged, was one that 
would harm no innocent man. It was only the guilty 
who would stand in fear of it. The famous doc- 
trine that " Force is no remedy," Mr. Bright now 
explained was intended to apply not to outrages, but 
to grievances. It was a pity that Mr. Bright had not 
originally explained himself more clearly: a very 
different construction from that now attached to 
them, had been placed upon his words. But from 
the day of its introduction the Prevention of Crimes 
Bill was resisted by Mr. Parnell and his followers 
by every means in their power. The most strenuous 
opposition was offered to the suspension of trial by 
jury, to the clauses that struck at intimidation, and 
to a provision that charged compensation upon dis- 
tricts where crimes of murder and maiming were not 
detected. The wisdom of this last provision was 
very doubtful, and its resistance by the Irish Mem- 
bers was not unwarranted. After weeks of obstruc- 
tion Mr. Gladstone declared the time had come when 
action must be taken. On the 29th of June the 
House sat continuously for twenty-eight hours. Mr. 
Pai'nell and fifteen of his followers were suspended 
for systematic obstruction, and later nine other 
Irish members were ordered to withdraw from the 
House. On the 12th of July the Bill, which was to 
remain in force for three years, became law. 

The passing of the measure dealing with the ques- 
tion of arrears of rent owing by Irish tenants, was 
the only other works of the session, which was de- 
scribed by Mr. Gladstone as one of " ruin and discom- 
fiture." The Arrears Bill went even further than 
the demands made by the Parnellites. It contained 
features which Mr. Gladstone admitted could not be 



350 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

justified on either economic or constitutional prin- 
ciples. The relief afforded tenants was to be in the 
nature of a gift instead of a loan; — a demoralising 
proposal which Avas without precedent, and was 
scarcely justified by the condition of the poor cot- 
tiers for whose benefit the Bill was especially framed. 
But apart from these objectionable features the meas- 
ure was a valuable one. Some 136,000 Irish tenants 
availed themselves of the advantages it conferred, at 
a cost of about two and a half millions, two-thirds 
of which were obtained from the Irish Church sur- 
plus, the balance being supplied by the State. 

Following the passing of the Arrears Bill and the 
measures conferring such large powers upon the Gov- 
ernment, a great change took place in the condition 
of Ireland. Crimes, boycotting, intimidation in 
every form, rapidly diminished. During the last six 
months of 1882 the number of outrages of all kinds, 
exclusive of threatening letters, had fallen to 365 as 
compared with 1,010 in the first half of the year. In 
1883 the improvement in the state of the country 
continued. For the first time since the Liberal Gov- 
ernment had come into office, the Queen's writs could 
run again in Ireland. On the whole the Executive 
used the extensive and arbitrary powers placed in 
their hands with moderation and discretion. That 
mistakes should be made was inevitable. 

The exceptional powers granted by Parliament 
enabled the Irish Executive to unravel a number of 
dangerous criminal conspiracies, to unmask the per- 
petrators of agrarian and political murders, and to 
vindicate the law by the punishment of many of the 
guilty persons. On January 13th and 15th the 
police, who had long been carefully maturing their 
plans, arrested twenty men in Dublin on charges of 



IRISH AGITATORS. 351 

being concerned in an attempt that had been made to 
murder Mr. Justice Lawson and Mr. Field, and in the 
assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. 
Burke. All the prisoners were young men, and be- 
longed to the humbler classes. One of them, James 
Carey was a well-to-do tradesman, and a member of 
the Dublin Town Council. Astounding revelations 
followed. It was proved that the Fenian organisa- 
tion, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, had a mys- 
terious inner circle known as the Invincibles. 
Formed of picked men chosen from the larger society, 
the Invincibles, some 250 in number, were alleged 
to be scattered throughout the United Kingdom. 
The object of the Society was "to remove all tyrants 
from the country." In November, 1881, Carey, who 
was a director of the larger Fenian organisation, was 
introduced by McCaffery, another of the prisoners, 
to a man named Walsh, who said he had come to Ire- 
land to found a branch of a secret society which was 
"to make history." A centre was formed for Dub- 
lin, and McCaffery, Carey, James Mullet, and Daniel 
Curley, were sworn in as its first members and chiefs. 
Some twenty-five other members joined. The oath 
was to obey orders, without inquiring more than was 
necessary to understand them, on pain of death. 
"N^o. 1," who was afterwards identified with a man 
named Tynan, Frank Byrne, secretary of an Eng- 
lish branch of the Land League, and P. J. Sheridan, 
a prominent member of the Land League, who went 
about disguised as a priest, — the man whose assist- 
ance Messrs. Parnell and O'Shea had urged the 
British Government to accept during the Kilmain- 
ham negotiations, — were among the head officials of 
the Invincibles, and issued weapons, money, and 
orders to their Irish confederates. The first persons 



352 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

to be murdered were Earl Cowper, Mr. Forster, and 
Mr. Burke. Many plans were arranged for the as- 
sassination of Mr. Forster, and only failed through 
a succession of chances. His escapes were almost 
miraculous. 

After the resignation of Mr. Forster and Lord 
Cowper, unharmed, ''Xo. 1" urged forward "the 
removal" of Mr. Burke. The plan was arranged 
by Carey, who gave the signal when the deed was to 
be done in the Phoenix Park. Curley carried out 
the general arrangements. A man named Fitzhar- 
ris, alias "Skin the Goat,'' drove the four murderers, 
Joseph Brady, Timothy Kelly, Thomas Caffery, and 
Patrick Delaney, into the Park, waited for them, and 
drove them away. It was only intended to kill Mr. 
Burke. The assassins did not even know who his 
companion was; but when Lord Frederick Cavendish 
interfered to try to save Mr. Burke, he was stabbed 
by Brady. Delaney had already been sentenced to 
ten years' penal ser^dtude for the attempt to murder 
Mr. Justice Lawson. Seven of the prisoners turned 
informers, including James Carey. The others were 
found guilty. Brady, Kelly, Caffery, Curley and 
Fagan were sentenced to death, and were hanged. 
A sentence of death passed on Patrick Delaney was 
commuted to one of penal servitude for life, to which 
Fitzharris and Joseph Mullet were also sentenced. 
James Mullet, Daniel Delaney, McCaffery, O'Brien 
and Moroney, were sent to prison for ten, and Doyle 
for five years. True bills for murder were returned 
against T^oian ("ISTo. I") P. J. Sheridan, and Walsh, 
who had fled to the United States. 

Of all the prisoners, Carey, who had turned 
Queen's evidence, was unquestionably the most 
guilty. His evidence and his unsuccessful attempts 



IRISH AGITATORS. 353 

to connect the heads of the Land League with the 
Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Invincibles, 
aroused great indignation against him. It was well 
known that if he were released in Ireland he would 
be assassinated. After keeping him for some time in 
prison, the authorities secretly put him, with his wife 
and seven children, on board a steamer at Dartmouth 
bound for Cape Town. The family went under the 
name of Power. On the same steamer was Patrick 
O'Donnell, a Californian miner, believed to be a 
member of one of the Eenian Societies. Whether 
Carey had been shadowed in spite of the precautions 
of the authorities is doubtful. O'Donnell cultivated 
the acquaintance of Power, and soon became con- 
vinced that he was the notorious informer Carey. 
At Cape Town the men changed to another steamer 
for N^atal. On July 29th when nearing that port, 
O'Donnell suddenly charged Power with being 
Carey, and drawing a revolver fired three shots. 
Within half an hour Carey died in the arms of his 
wife who had been present when her husband was 
shot. O'Donnell was brought back to England, con- 
victed, and hanged. 

Another extensive conspiracy to murder was 
brought to light at Belfast, and twelve men were 
sentenced to periods of from five to ten years' penal 
servitude. Many other perpetrators of outrages 
were arrested and punished-, including three men 
who had first assassinated Lord Ardilaun's bailiff at 
Lough Mask, and afterwards had murdered a whole 
family who were suspected of having identified them 
with the crime. In Great Britain renewed attempts 
were made to blow up public buildings. Pive per- 
sons were injured by an explosion at Glasgow; and 
endeavours were mad© to wreck the offices of th© 
23 



354 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Local Government Board in London, and of The 
Times newspaper. Fortunately the police succeeded 
in tracking the authors of these plots. Of the men 
tried for treason-felony in June, four, named Thomas 
Gallagher, Henry Wilson, John Cur tin, and White- 
head, who manufactured the explosives in Birming- 
ham, were sentenced to hard labour for life. Gal- 
lagher when arrested had over £900 in English and 
American money upon him. It was proved that all 
the dynamite outrages had been carried out at the 
order of, and with money furnished by, a secret 
society in l^ew York. 

A movement to raise in Ireland a testimonial fund 
to Mr. Parnell led to two important results. It 
proved what a very strong hold the head of the Irish 
party had upon a large portion of the people, and it 
brought the Irish Catholics into direct collision with 
the Papal authority. Among the earlier subscribers 
to the fund was Archbishop Croke, whose action was 
followed by a large number of priests. As he had 
supported the Land League in the early years of its 
existence, so Archbishop Croke had now extended 
his approval to the ^N^ational League, which had been 
founded to take the place of the organisation which 
the Government had suppressed. More than once 
the Vatican had expressed vaguely worded disap- 
proval of the active part several of the Irish prelates, 
and many of their priests, were taking in political 
agitation. Archbishop Croke was now summoned 
to Rome, and w^as severely rebuked for the part he 
had played. A letter signed on behalf of the Pope 
by Cardinal Simeoni, and Monsignor Jacobini, was 
addressed to the Irish bishops discountenancing the 
projected tribute to Mr. Parnell. But the thunder 
of the Papal rescript was ignored. The action of the 



IRISH AGITATORS. 355 

Pope was put down as the result of misleading rep- 
resentations made to him by Mr. Errington, who for 
some years had constituted himself a kind of unoffi- 
cial diplomatic agent between the Vatican and the 
British Government, much to the annoyance of the 
Irish ^N^ationalists. Instead of being received with 
respect and obedience, the Papal rescript met with 
defiance and denunciation from many unexpected 
quarters, and tended rather to promote than extin- 
guish the tribute to Mr. Parnell. When the fund 
was closed it amounted to £38,000. This, and a 
seat won by Mr. Healy in County Monaghan, greatly 
strengthened the position of Mr. Parnell, who in a 
speech at the close of the year gave the Grovernment 
to understand that at the next general election he 
would be master of the situation. If coercion was 
to be continued, he said, it should be by a Tory not 
by a Liberal Government. "Beyond a shadow of 
doubt it will be for the Irish people in England, and 
for your independent Irish members, to determine at 
the next election whether a Tory or a Liberal Eng- 
lish Ministry shall rule England. This is a great 
force and a great power. If we cannot rule our- 
selves we can at least cause them to be ruled as we 
choose.'' 'No more uncompromising defiance was 
ever flung in the face of a nation or of a Government. 
There was one statesman at least upon whom Mr. 
Parnell's words had a great effect. From this time 
Mr. Gladstone began to look upon the demand for 
Home Eule with less critical eyes. 



356 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

THE REFOKM BILL OF 1884. 

Released from the necessity of passing measures 
fiercely opposed by the Parnellites, the Government 
during 1883 were able to carry several bills of impor- 
tance to political progress. Of these the Act against 
Corrupt Practices at Elections was the chief. An 
exhaustive inquiry by the Election Commissioners of 
1881 had shown that in spite of the Ballot, and of 
the provisions of several Acts that had been passed 
against bribery, a large amount of corruption con- 
tinued to exist. 

At Canterbury, the Commissioners found that al- 
though the constituency as a whole was not corrupt, 
six hundred voters were accessible to bribery, some 
of whom held municipal offices while others were 
justices of the peace. The verdict on Knaresborough 
was that treating had been sanctioned by both 
parties with undue lavishness. At Boston, corrupt 
practices were declared to have extensively prevailed ; 
and one of the candidates, two solicitors, and others 
were scheduled as guilty of bribery. The state of 
affairs at Sandwich was far worse. At a bye-election 
in May, 1880, both direct and indirect bribery had 
been extensively and systematically indulged in. In 
Chester the Commissioners reported that corrupt 
practices had marked the elections of 18Y4 and 1880. 
Over a hundred persons were scheduled as guilty of 
bribery, including the mayor, four aldermen, and 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 357 

eight town-councillors. 'No less than 2,872 persons 
were returned as having been guilty of corruption 
at Macclesfield. At Gloucester, 1,916 electors ad- 
mitted having received in 1880 bribes to the amount 
of £2,500, and it was found that bribery was the rule 
and not the exception at all elections in the city. 
The Commissioners on the Oxford election reported 
that over a thousand electors were open to corrupt 
influences. Putting aside the returning officer's 
charges, about £7,500 was spent in the April election, 
and upwards of £11,000 in the May election, in a 
constituency numbering 6,166 electors. In spite of 
the stringency of some of the reports of the Commis- 
sioners, very few prosecutions followed, and by far 
the larger portion of those who were committed for 
bribery were acquitted. But the parliamentary rep- 
resentation of Oxford, Gloucester, Chester, Maccles- 
field, Sandwich, and Wigan, was temporarily sus- 
pended. 

It was evident that drastic methods for dealing 
with corruption and other offences were needed. 
They were provided by the Government Bill. A 
candidate found guilty of corruption was disqualified 
for sitting in Parliament, voting, holding any office 
for seven years, or for ever representing the consti- 
tuency in which the ofiPence was committed. Bribery, 
treating, and undue influence, were made misdemean- 
ours, for which the penalty was not to exceed a 
year's imprisonment. Personation was declared a 
felony. The amount which any candidate might 
spend upon an election was regulated in accordance 
with the size and character of the constituency. At 
the trial of every election petition the Director of 
Public Prosecutions, or his representative, was to 
appear, and to take directions from the Court respect- 



358 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

ing tlie prosecution of offenders. Stringent formali- 
ties were imposed upon persons desirous of withdraw- 
ing an election petition, and a corrupt agreement to 
withdraw was made a misdemeanour. Even where 
no petition had been presented, the Director of Public 
Prosecutions was bound on receiving information of 
corrupt practices to make inquiries, and, if neces- 
sary, institute prosecutions. The number of paid 
assistants and committee rooms was strictly limited. 
'No conveyances were to be hired. A variety of un- 
necessary payments were declared illegal. The 
breach of any one of these, among other provisions, 
constituted an "illegal" as distinct from a "corrupt" 
practice. Illegal payment, employment, hiring, &c., 
if committed personally by a candidate or his agent, 
amounted to illegal practices. All claims were to be 
paid through one election agent, by w^hom a sworn 
return of the election expenses was to be made mthin 
a limited time. A violation of these rules amounted 
to a corrupt practice, and vacated the seat. It was 
estimated that the Act would reduce the cost of a 
General Election from some two and a half millions 
to £800,000. An effort made by Mr. Broadhurst to 
have the cost of Parliamentary elections defrayed 
out of the rates was opposed by Mr. Gladstone and 
defeated. 

Another measure of importance was the Agricul- 
tural Holdings Bill, which secured English tenants 
compensation, on the termination of their tenancies, 
for all improvements. The amount of compensation 
was to be determined by the value of the improve- 
ments to an incoming tenant. Temporary improve- 
ments could be carried out at the discretion of the 
tenant, but for those of a permanent character the 
consent of the landlord was required. An amend- 




CHARI.es S. PARNElyly. 



13 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 359 

ment, introduced by the House of Lords, excluding 
from the value of improvements to be assessed what- 
ever was due to "the inherent qualities of the soil," 
was accepted, and the Bill became law. Though not 
a great measure, the Act rectified a number of press- 
ing grievances, and went quite as far as the conditions 
warranted. 

On the whole the relations between landlords and 
tenants in England have been singularly happy. It 
says much for the landed classes that so little friction 
should have arisen during the period of severe depres- 
sion and fall in prices which began in 1874. The 
sacrifices made by the majority of landlords were 
quite as great as those tenants were called upon to 
bear ; and the liberal spirit in which aid was extended 
to farmers by the owners of the soil, prevented the 
growth of disaffection, and preserved the kindly feel- 
ing which has long existed between landlord and 
tenant. At the dawn of the new century there are 
no signs that the confiscatory land legislation which 
has been appKed to Ireland will ever become neces- 
sary in England. 

But while English farmers have little, that could 
be remedied by Parliament, to complain of, the state 
of the agricultural labourers is much more unsatis- 
factory. During the last quarter of the century, 
the rural districts have been largely depopulated. 
The deplorable conditions under which the mass of 
the people exist have driven away from the land 
the best specimens of the finest peasantry in the 
world. A great deterioration has consequently taken 
place in the quality of agricultural labour. The ma- 
jority of young men of fine physique, energy, and 
ability, instead of following the occupation of their 
fathers, have been forced to seek in the ever grow- 



360 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURA?. 

ing towns, and in otlier parts of the world, the decent 
means of livelihood denied them in the rural districts 
where they were born. It is impossible to view this 
without apprehension. Sooner or later a reform of 
the English land laws will become necessary, if the 
people are to be attached to the soil. To accomplish 
that end, a great improvement must be effected in 
the material surroundings and prospects of the agri- 
cultural labourer. At present, the most he can hope 
to win, by unremitting industry and economy, is a 
bare li^dng for himself and those dependent upon 
him. In only too many cases, he is poorly fed, badly 
housed, and absolutely cut off from any chance of 
bettering his condition. What wonder that the first 
object of his children is to escape from the depressing 
surroundings, the hopeless occupation of a life that 
offers all the penalties and none of the rewards of 
existence. 

The session of 1883 also witnessed the passing of 
a Bill prohibiting the payment of wages in public- 
houses, and a greatly needed reform of the law deal- 
ing with patents. Through the efforts of Mr. 
Chamberlain, a large measure, amending the very 
defective provisions of the laws of bankruptcy, was 
added to the Statute Book. By the Bankruptcy Act, 
the powers previously exercised by a Judge were 
transferred to the Board of Trade, and a commercial 
was substituted for a legal supervision over the affairs 
of a debtor. Under the old law, fraudulent, or care- 
less trustees flourished ; bankruptcy afforded dishonest 
traders scandalous facilities for cheating their credit- 
ors; the regulations governing liquidations by ar- 
rangement, and compositions, constituted a premium 
upon fraud. All this was changed by the Act of 
1883. Insolvent estates were to be thrown into 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. ^61 

bankruptcy. The debtor might still present a peti- 
tion, but the moment he did so, the control of his 
affairs passed into the hands of an official receiver. 
1^0 composition of less than five shillings in the pound 
was permitted; the bankrupt could only obtain his 
discharge under stringent conditions; the amount of 
remuneration trustees might charge was restricted, 
and an official audit was provided for their accounts. 
With slight amendments, Mr. Chamberlain's Act has 
worked well, and is at once a terror to fraudulent 
bankrupts, and a means of honourable acquittal for 
the victims of misfortune. 

To meet the distress which continued in parts of 
Ireland, Bills were passed to encourage fisheries on 
the Irish coasts; to provide for the construction of 
tramways and light railways, and to assist emigration. 
At the instigation of the Irish members, half of the 
amount to be devoted to furthering emigration was 
diverted to the much more desirable object of enab- 
ling inhabitants of congested districts to migrate and 
establish themselves in thinly populated parts of Ire- 
land. A useful measure, brought in by Mr. T. P. 
O'Connor, enabled rural sanitary authorities to pro- 
vide dwellings for labourers by means of loans from 
the Government. 

Events at home and abroad had weakened the posi- 
tion of the Government. One of the few questions 
upon which. Liberals were united was a demand for 
the assimilation of the country to the borough fran- 
chise. The Eeform Bills of 1832 and 1867 had 
extended the rights and responsibilities ,of citizen- 
ship, only to a section of the people. At the time 
those Acts were passed, many of the persons excluded 
were not qualified to be entrusted with political 
power. But the spread of education, the great en- 



362 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

lift'htment of the people which had resulted from the 
growth of a free press, rendered it imperative that 
something should be done to remedy the defects of 
previous legislation, and remove the glaring inequali- 
ties which existed in the system of representation. 
The necessity for a redistribution of seats was even 
greater than for an extension of the franchise to the 
inhabitants of the rural districts. It was urged with 
much truth, that the nation was being governed by a 
small minority of the population, a minority of the 
voters, and a minority of the taxpayers. The anoma- 
lies that existed in Staffordshire may be cited as an 
illustration of what existed throughout the country. 
Four boroughs with a population of sixty thousand, 
and an income estimated for the purposes of taxation 
at £643,000, returned seven members; while in the 
same county four other boroughs, with a population 
of half a million, and an income of nearly four and 
three-quarter millions, only sent six members to Par- 
liament. Elsewhere, certain constituencies, with a 
population of only a quarter of a million, were repre- 
sented by forty members in the House of Commons, 
while another forty members represented more than 
six millions and a quarter. 

By the Conservatives, the demand for reform was 
viewed with dislike and apprehension. Lord Ran- 
dolph Churchill, whose leanings to democracy were 
in marked contrast with the attitude of the majority 
of his party, declared, at the close of 1883, that the 
proposal to enfranchise the agricultural labourer was 
^'premature, inexpedient, unnatural, and therefore 
highly dangerous," and added that the demand for 
redistribution, which was only another name for de- 
priving the smaller boroughs of their representation, 
was unneeded, uncalled for, and unjust. 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 363 

The Liberals, althougli united in demanding elec- 
toral reform and a redistribution of seats, were di- 
vided upon the principles which should govern the 
framing of further legislation. Mr. John Morley 
and others were in favour of the one-man-one-vote 
theory: more extreme Radicals demanded universal 
suffrage; Lord Hartington dreaded any extension of 
the suffrage in Ireland, which would increase "the 
numerical strength and political power of the Irre- 
concilables'' : Mr. Chamberlain argued' for the right 
of Ireland to a full share in the proposed electoral 
reform. Mr. Bright, the great champion of liberty, 
was directly opposed to the demands of the Radicals. 
He urged that the English constitution was not based 
on, and never aimed at, the principle of universal 
suffrage, and that the object of every reformer, who 
was not at heart a revolutionist, should be to enlarge 
as far ^ as possible the existing basis of the Constitu- 
tion, and not to substitute some alien foundation. 
While the campaign in favour of reform was being 
carried on throughout the country with great vigour 
by his followers, Mr. Gladstone created no little sur- 
prise and dismay by seizing the first opportunity of 
ridiculing newspaper statements as to the intentions 
of the Cabinet, and adding that he doubted as much 
the policy of being too soon, as of being too late in 
the determination of legislative measures. 

Whatever Mr. Gladstone may have meant by this 
ambiguous pronouncement, it soon became clear that 
the extension of the franchise would occupy the at- 
tention of Parliament during 1884. There was an 
irresistible demand throughout the country for re- 
form. Recognising the change in public opinion the 
Conservatives greatly modified their views. They 
took their stand upon new ground, declaring that 



364 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

while an extension of tlie franchise was desirable, it 
would only be acceptable if accompanied by a satis- 
factory scheme of redistribution. As the advisability 
of separating the Franchise Bill from the Redistribu- 
tion Bill had been insisted upon by all Liberal leaders, 
the new session promised to be a stormy one. The 
expectation was amply fulfilled. On the last day of 
February, Mr. Gladstone introduced the Franchise 
Bill in the House of Commons, and announced the 
refusal of the Government to deal with redistribution 
in the same measure, on the ground that it was impos- 
sible for Parliament to discuss the whole question in a 
single session. He insisted upon the extension of 
the franchise being granted to Ireland as well as to 
England and Scotland, and gave a vague outline of 
the features of the measure for the redistribution of 
seats, which was promised for the following year. 
The representation of Scotland would be enlarged, 
that of Ireland would not be decreased; the distinc- 
tion between borough and county districts would be 
maintained, and the reapportionment would stop 
short of equal electoral divisions. 

The Franchise Bill proved to be a large and liberal 
measure of reform, though it did not go as far as 
many of the extreme supporters of the Government 
had hoped. In the main, the existing rights of the 
franchise were not touched. Only a slight effort 
was made to check fagot votes; i. e. votes conferred 
by the possession of small pieces of landed property 
acquired in different parts of the country with the 
object of securing a vote for the owners. As the 
property qualification does not carry with it any con- 
dition as regards residence, a small number of persons 
possess from two to twenty votes in as many constit- 
uencies; and as a general election is not held on one 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 3^5 

day, but is allowed to drag on for some weeks, prop- 
erty owners have every facility for recording their 
votes in different places. But the number of electors 
with more than one vote is infinitesimal, and Mr. 
Gladstone was probably well advised in not adding 
to the difficulties of the Government by assailing the 
property qualification. The Bill enlarged the £10 
occupation franchise in boroughs, so as to make it 
include land without buildings, and created a service 
franchise conferring the vote upon persons occupying 
tenements, in virtue of some office or appointment, 
without paying any rent. Thus modified and en- 
larged, the borough franchise was extended to the 
counties, and the invidious distinction between the 
political rights of persons in rural and urban dis- 
tricts, was swept away. The reform was the most 
far reaching of the century. By the Magna Charta 
of British liberties, as the Reform Act of 1832 was 
termed, less than half a million voters were added 
to the electorate. In 1866 the total constituency of 
the United Kingdom had reached 1,364,000. That 
number was raised to 2,448,000 by the Bills passed 
between 1867 and 1869. In 1884 the number of 
voters had only increased to three million. By the 
extension of the franchise to the counties over two 
and a half million voters were added to the elector- 
ate. Of these 1,778,000 were in English, 262,000 
in Scotch, and 517,000 in Irish constituencies. 

Though the Conservatives did not denounce the 
Franchise Bill, they were anything but eager for its 
adoption. Speaking on behalf of his party. Lord 
Salisbury denied that the Government had received 
any mandate from the country at the last election to 
deal with the question, and challenged the Ministry 
to "appeal to the people." The tone of other speak- 



366 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

ers was less hostile, but there was a strong protest, 
supported by many moderate men, against the separa- 
tion of redistribution from the franchise question. 
To the course adopted by the Government there were 
three overwhelming objections, and whatever may 
have been the motives which inspired the Opposition, 
they would unquestionably have failed in their duty 
to the State if they had not entered a vigorous protest 
against the action of ministers in withholding from 
Parliament all knowledge of the policy by which they 
would be guided in dealing with the redistribution 
of seats. If the Franchise Bill were passed without 
any effective guarantee as to what would follow, an 
appeal to the country might have taken place upon 
the new and enlarged register before any redistribu- 
tion scheme was introduced. If that absurdity were 
escaped, the Government might have introduced a 
scheme of redistribution which would have given 
undue advantage to certain parts of the country over 
others, and the scheme foreshadowed by Mr. Glad- 
stone lent colour to the suggestion that the Govern- 
ment had some ulterior object in refusing to disclose 
even the principles upon which their Redistribution 
Bill would be based. Thirdly, it was obvious that if 
the Franchise Bill were passed, the Opposition in dis- 
cussing any scheme of redistribution would have a 
rope round its neck. A rejection of the Redistribu- 
tion Bill, however objectionable it might prove, 
would enable the Government to appeal to the new 
electorate upon the lines of the old division of seats. 
Unless it was the deliberate intention of the extreme 
members of the Cabinet to force a conflict, it is diffi- 
cult to appreciate the reasons which induced the Gov- 
ernment to take up the indefensible and unusual atti- 
tude of demanding that Parliament should pass the 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 367 

first half of a great measure of reform, before the 
principles governing the second and more important 
section of it were disclosed. 

On the second reading of the Franchise Bill, Lord 
John Manners, on behalf of the Opposition, moved 
an amendment to the effect that the House declined 
to proceed with the Bill until it had before it the full 
details of the Government scheme of Parliamentary 
reform. In opposing this the Liberal leaders failed 
to give any adequate reasons for their conspiracy of 
silence with respect to redistribution. Lord Hart- 
ington's answer was that the necessity for bringing 
forward a complete bill was not imperative, and that 
Parliament could not possibly deal with both bills in 
one session. Mr. Bright sneered at the greater read- 
iness shown by Conservatives to discuss the Redis- 
tribution Bill which was not before them, than to 
criticise the Franchise Bill which was. Mr. Cham- 
berlain accused the Opposition of being afraid to trust 
the people, and imparted the information that the 
scheme of redistribution would not follow the prece- 
dent set by the Conservatives in 1867. In replying 
to the whole debate, Mr. Gladstone argued that a 
knowledge of the manner in which the new franchises 
would be distributed was almost essential to enable 
the Government to determine the details of the plan 
of redistribution. The amendment was rejected by 
340 to 210 votes, and the Franchise Bill was read a 
second time. 

The third reading marked the beginning of a seri- 
ous agitation. During the debates it had become 
clear that the Conservatives, who offered no opposi- 
tion to the principle or scope of the Franchise Bill, 
relied upon the measure being rejected by the House 
of Lords. Referring to rumours that the measure 



368 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

would be thrown out by the Peers, Mr. Gladstone 
warned the Opposition against provoking a conflict, 
which opened a prospect more serious than any that 
had occurred since the first Reform Bill. The atti- 
tude of the Government was, in Shakespeare's words, 
^'Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, 
bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee." This 
declaration was received with wild cheers by the 
Radicals. After a brief debate, during which Mr. 
Gladstone's speech was described by Sir Stafford 
Northcote as extraordinary, theatrical, and an at- 
tempt to intimidate the House of Lords, the Con- 
servatives left the House, and the Bill was read a 
third time nemine contradicente. 

In the House of Lords, the Bill was opposed by 
Earl Cairns, who moved that the House, while pre- 
pared to concur in a well-considered and complete 
scheme for the extension of the franchise, could not 
assent to a measure without provision for redistribu- 
tion, or any security that the enfranchisement would 
not go into operation before redistribution became 
law. This was carried by 205 votes to 146. Mr. 
Gladstone at once declared that all Government 
measures would be abandoned, Parliament would be 
prorogued as speedily as possible, and arrangements 
made for an Autumn session. Efforts made by the 
more moderate men of both parties to effect a com- 
promise led to nothing. IN^egotiations were futile. 
The Government offered to propose identical resolu- 
tions in both Houses reciting that the Franchise Bill 
had been passed, in reliance on an engagement that 
ministers would use every effort to carry a bill for the 
redistribution of seats in the ensuing session. This 
offer was rejected by Lord Salisbury, who urged that 
HO Government, not even the most powerful, could 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 3^9 

guarantee that a redistribution bill would be passed 
before the dissolution. The demand of the Opposi- 
tion was that the scheme of redistribution should be 
placed before them while Parliament was in a posi- 
tion to modify it, should it prove to be manifestly 
unjust. ^^How should we be able to modify it if we 
had this pistol put to our heads : ^Unless you pass this 
bill you shall have no bill at all, and you go to the 
country with a new enfranchisement on the old con- 
stituencies V '' Why was it that the Government 
would not put a clause in the Franchise Bill to pre- 
vent its coming into operation without redistribution ? 
If that demand had been granted the whole difficulty 
would have been at an end. 

Many Liberals contended that the House of Lords, 
not being an elective body, had no right to deal with 
the Franchise Bill. Such a contention is obviously 
absurd. As long as a second Chamber exists it is 
entitled to exercise its independence of judgment 
upon all questions requiring its assent. Whether it 
would not be wise to effect material changes in the 
constitution of the House of Lords is entirely a dif- 
ferent matter. N^ot only Liberals, but very many 
Conservatives desire to see the hereditary principle 
largely restricted, and the Upper Chamber strength- 
ened by being brought more into sympathy with the 
people. But a recognition of the defects and weak- 
nesses of the House of Lords as now constituted, is 
no excuse for the eagerness with which Mr. Glad- 
stone, and many other Liberals, seized every occasion 
to inflame popular passion against the Peers. It ap- 
pears to us that in the conflict now precipitated be- 
tween the two Chambers by the Liberal Ministry, 
the Peers were distinctly in the right, and Mr. Glad- 
stone and his colleagues hopelessly in the wrong. 
24 



370 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

Be that as it may, it was soon evident that those on 
both sides who desired a compromise were in a min- 
oritjo 

A policy of "no surrender/' had attractions for 
both Radicals and Conservatives. The Opposition, 
who viewed the extension of the new franchise to 
Ireland as a serious menace to the integrity of the 
Empire, wished to force a dissolution. In the action 
of the Lords, Liberals, unfortunately, saw nothing 
but an opportunity for promoting an agitation 
throughout the country. Between the prorogation 
of Parliament and the Autumn session, a fierce cam- 
paign against the House of Lords was carried on. 
The Peers were threatened, denounced, and vilified 
in language aptly described as "political Billings- 
gate." They were represented not as having de- 
manded information respecting the redistribution of 
seats bill, but as having refused to permit an exten- 
sion of the franchise. In 1859, Mr. Bright had 
warned the nation to "repudiate without mercy any 
bill of any Government, whatever its franchise, what- 
ever its seeming concessions may be, if it does not 
redistribute the seats." The House of Lords had 
acted on that excellent advice, and for doing so were 
denounced by Mr. Bright as "an arrogant and un- 
patriotic oligarchy," "the spawn of the plunder, and 
the wars, and the corruption of the dark ages of our 
country." Mr. John Morley predicted that "no power 
on earth can separate henceforth the question of 
mending the House of Commons from the question 
of mending or ending the House of Lords." Mr. 
Chamberlain, who has studied with advantage the 
advice of the Apostle to be "all things to all men," 
declared that the Conservatives hated the franchise, 
and would not extend it unless they could take away 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 371 

with one hand what they gave with the other. For 
over a hundred years the House of Lords, who had 
never done anything to advance the common weal, 
'^had protected every abuse and sheltered every privi- 
lege. It had denied justice and delayed reform. It 
is irresponsible without independence, obstinate with- 
out courage, arbitrary without judgment, and arro- 
gant without knowledge." Many curious extracts 
might be given from the rantings of demagogues, 
whom in a fit of mental aberration the nation mistook 
for responsible statesmen. 

The Conservatives defended their position with 
great ability and energy. Lord Salisbury, in a par- 
ticularly effective speech, argued that all the measures 
with which Parliament had laboriously been dealing 
during the session had suddenly been thrown violently 
aside, for no reason, except that the Prime Minister 
was behaving like a man, who having met with some 
domestic quarrel, broke all his crockery to show how 
much he felt it, Mr. Gladstone had thrown away all 
the valuable labours of the session, not because any- 
thing that had happened made it more difficult to pass 
the various bills, but simply in order to raise a con- 
flict with the House of Lords. There was much truth 
in these taunts. They stung, and they told on the 
mind of the people, who began to think there must be 
something in the allegation that the Government 
wanted to pass the Franchise Bill first, in order that 
they might force through Parliament a scheme of re- 
distribution under which the rearrangement of the 
constituencies would be manipulated so as to secure 
the Liberals undue advantage over their opponents. 

To assist his party in arousing public opinion and 
enlisting it against the Llouse of Lords, Mr. Gladstone 
undertook a great campaign in Midlothian. His 



372 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

journey from Hawarden to Dalmeny was a triumphal 
progress. At the numerous great meetings he ad- 
dressed, he was received with a frantic enthusiasm 
which no other statesman could have called forth. 
His denunciations of the House of Lords were received 
with wild cheering. Though he declined personally 
to enter upon questions of change in the constitution 
until their necessity could no longer be denied, he 
declared that the vast majority of people thought 
the time had come to study the means of making 
organic reforms in the House of Lords. The plea of 
the Peers that they had rejected the Franchise Bill 
because it was not accompanied by a scheme of re- 
distribution, was a dishonest one; but though the 
Lords had erred, their error was not irretrievable. If 
the Upper House would give way to the expressed 
opinion of the representative Chamber, supported by 
the general voice of the nation, "and recede from this, 
for them, ill-starred, unhappy, and if continued, most 
menacing conflict," all might yet be well. But he 
wished to appeal to the reason of the House of Lords, 
not to its fears. The three points, upon which Mr. 
Gladstone laid most stress in his Midlothian speeches, 
were that the action of the Peers was indefensible, 
could not be permitted, and ought not to be persisted 
in; that the solution of the conflict lay with the na- 
tion; and that the Lords would do well to hasten to 
swallow in November what they had rejected in July. 
There was to be no concession on the part of the 
Government. If the Lords, acting with the wisdom 
that had characterised them on previous occasions, 
did not seize the opportunity to ^ ^recover the conse- 
quences of their unfortunate step,'' the Government 
would not leave their supporters in the lurch. If Mr. 
Gladstone's speeches meant anything they indicated 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 373 

clearly that the Ministry would bring in their Fran- 
chise Bill again without any scheme of redistribution, 
and defy the Lords to stop the progress of the meas- 
ure. But fortunately more moderate views prevailed. 
In spite of the thunders of applause with which 
Mr. Gladstone was received, there was evidence that 
the position adopted by the Prime Minister and some 
of his colleagues, was regarded with disapproval by a 
considerable section of the Liberal party. Earl Cow- 
per, at the beginning of the conflict, had urged the 
necessity of compromise, and the imprudence of pre- 
senting the Franchise Bill in the Autumn for the 
acceptance or rejection of Parliament, unaccompanied 
by any other measure. The Government having ad- 
mitted that they could, if they chose, present a Re- 
distribution Bill in the Autumn, Lord Cowper, as a 
Liberal, declared that they ought to do so. This view 
was accepted by many other Liberals, whose opinion 
gradually made itself felt. It was evident to dis- 
passionate critic^ that the Government could not afford 
to alienate any of their supporters. The position of 
the Ministry was anything but a strong one. During 
the session they had been defeated in the House of 
Commons by 208 votes to 197 on the question of the 
relief of local taxation, and though the victory of their 
opponents was a barren one, it had none the less added 
to the embarrassment of the Cabinet. Abroad, and 
particularly in South Africa and the Soudan, the 
policy of the Ministry had been unpopular. The de- 
feat at Majuba, and the surrender to the Boers, the 
massacre of the troops under Hicks and Baker and 
of the Egyptian garrisons, the abandonment of Gor- 
don, were records upon which Mr. Gladstone and his 
followers did not dare to appeal to the country. Their 
anxiety to avoid a dissolution was quite as great as the 



374 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

eagerness of the Opposition to force one. Every 
effort had been made to arouse the nation against the 
House of Lords. But these endeavours were not suc- 
cessful. Beyond the cheers to be elicited at political 
meetings by the use of threatening language against 
the Peers, there was no more enthusiasm for the 
campaign against the Upper House, than there was 
for the Kilmainham Treaty or the Majuba surrender. 
Both parties having declared for a policy of "no 
surrender,'' a w^ay out of the difficulty had to be 
found. Hints as to the possibility of a compromise 
began to be dropped by Lord Hartington, Mr. Faw- 
cett, and other Liberal speakers. The Conservative 
leaders responded to these overtures in equally guard- 
ed language. But the negotiations did not progress, 
and the time for the reassembling of Parliament was 
fast approaching. An ingenious solution of the situa- 
tion was devised. The draft scheme of redistribu- 
tion of seats, drawn up for the consideration of the 
Cabinet by a ministerial committee, was secretly 
given to The Standard for publication. With its 
appearance the vast bubble which the Government 
had inflated collapsed. For the sake of appearances 
both parties continued to hold their ground. At the 
opening of the session, on October 23rd, Mr. Glad- 
stone solemnly went through the farce of reaffirming 
that the two branches of the Reform question could 
not be considered together. The Government could 
not accept the demand of the Opposition "without 
discredit and dishonour. The real question now was 
which majority was to prevail, that in the Lords or 
that in the Commons? The intention of the Govern- 
ment was that the majority in the Commons should 
prevail, and they could not consent to surrender at dis- 
cretion." But this heroic attitude could not be main- 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 375 

tained. A grave conflict was to be renewed about a 
shadow. The provisions of the redistribution scheme 
were known. There was no probability of the Go- 
vernment measure being resisted by the Opposition, 
who had given their support to a more liberal scheme 
than that which had been published by The Standard, 
Both sides recognised the futility of further con- 
troversy. 

Two events tended to render the Government more 
conciliatory. A formidable and very damaging in- 
dictment was made by Lord Randolph Churchill in 
the House of Commons against Mr. Chamberlain, 
who was accused of a systematic attempt to incit-e the 
people to riot and disorder by speeches delivered at 
Birmingham, Hanley, and Newtown. Lord Randolph 
made out so good a case for his vote of censure, that, 
in spite of Mr. Chamberlain's able defence of his con- 
duct, the Government only secured a majority of 36 
in a House of nearly 400. The fact that with the 
exceptions of Sir Charles Dilke, and Mr. Gladstone, 
not a single minister uttered a word in defence of 
Mr. Chamberlain, showed how little sympathy there 
was with the President of the Board of Trade, and 
gave those behind the scenes a vivid idea of the bitter- 
ness that existed between various members of the 
Cabinet. While the controversy over the Lords was 
still dragging on, an important bye-election took 
place in South Warwickshire. It was not only won 
by the Conservatives, who thus gained a seat from 
the Liberals, but it was significant that while the 
conservative vote had largely increased since 1880, 
the Liberal polling showed an even greater falling 
off. 

Shakespeare says, ^^your If is the only peace-maker ; 
much virtue in If." Both parties found it so. While 



3Y6 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

the Franchise Bill was being passed by the House 
of Commons, negotiations were proceeding privately. 
Eventually it was agreed that "the Government would 
receive in trust a communication from the Opposition 
that they would go into consultation on the Redis- 
tribution Bill, but would not ask for any assurance 
as to the passing of the Eranchise Bill as a preliminary 
to such a consultation." If after consultation the 
Opposition approved of the Redistribution Bill, they 
were to give an assurance that the Franchise Bill 
should pass. In that case the Government under- 
took to introduce their redistribution scheme into the 
House of Commons when the Lords went into Com- 
mittee on the Franchise Bill, which was to be passed 
before Christmas. Relying upon the loyal support 
of the Conservatives, the Government would give 
a pledge staking not only their credit but their exist- 
ence upon the passing of the Redistribution Bill, 
framed by the heads of both parties, during the session 
of 1885. 

Thus ended the great controversy between the 
Lords and the Commons. The Lords got every- 
thing they had demanded, and something more. 
Under consultation with Lord Salisbury and Sir 
Stafford Korthcote, many important changes and 
improvements were introduced into the Cabinet 
scheme of redistribution. By the friendly con- 
ferences between the heads of the two parties 
on this great measure, in which both were 
equally interested, the best interests of the nation were 
promoted. But what is to be said of the statesman- 
ship that out of pique, and to gratify personal vanity, 
without having a single great or worthy object to 
serve, sacrificed the legislative efforts of a whole 
session, precipitated a conflict between the two Houses 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 377 

of Parliament, organised a vast campaign from one 
end of the land to the other, held 1,512 public meet- 
ings to denounce the action of the House of Lords, 
made violent and inflammatory appeals to the worst 
passions of the masses against a portion of the Con- 
stitution, and ended by adopting the very course which 
for over two months had been denounced from John 
O'Groat's to the Land's End? 

The Redistribution of Seats Bill, which, with the 
Franchise Bill, was passed without further serious 
difficulty, was a measure of great importance. By the 
broad and statesmanlike changes made, results of 
greater moment than even those arising from the 
extension of the franchise, were conferred upon the 
country. Except in the case of a few boroughs, and 
the City of London, single member constituencies 
were created throughout the United Kingdom. This 
system was opposed to the views of several Liberal 
members, including Mr. Courtney, who resigned his 
office in the Government as Financial Secretary of 
the Treasury. It was contended that the single mem- 
ber system would fail altogether to obtain the judg- 
ment of the people, and that it afforded no security 
that a majority of representatives would not be re- 
turned by the minority of the electors. The type of 
representatives sent to Parliament would be de- 
teriorated; town members would be of the vestrv 
order, and county members would be ratepayers' mem- 
bers. The views of Mr. Courtney were shared by 
Mr. Goschen, and Sir John Lubbock, but otherwise 
met with little support, and have not been justified by 
experience. 

The membership of the House of Commons was 
increased by the Redistribution Bill from 652 to 670. 
Of the 18 additional seats, England was given six and 



378 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

Scotland twelve. The Bill disfranchised all boroughs 
with a population below 15,000; gave one member 
only to towns with a population of from 15,000 to 
50,000; permitted the old two member system to 
continue in towns with a population of from 50,000 
to 165,000; and provided that places with over 165,- 
000 inhabitants should receive additional members 
in proportion of one to every fifty or sixty thousand. 
With the special exception already mentioned, each 
borough or county was divided into as many separate 
districts as there were members to be returned. 
Under these provisions 160 seats were extinguished 
altogether. In England seventy-three, in Scotland 
two, and in Ireland twenty-two boroughs lost their 
representation entirely. Three towns in Ireland, and 
34 in England and Wales lost one member each. The 
total number of seats set free was 160. Of the 670 
seats to be distributed, England received 465, Wales 
30, Scotland 72, and Ireland 103. Eight new 
boroughs were created, and the representation of 
London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glas- 
gow, Edinburgh, and other large centres, was in- 
creased in proportion to their population. The Eng- 
lish counties previously represented by 172 members 
were given 241; the representation of Irish counties 
was increased from 63 to 85, and Scotland gained 
seven additional county members. The great work 
of Beform begun in 1832 was now complete. Within 
little more than half a century a revolution had been 
effected in the political system of the country. The 
control of power originally enjoyed by the privileged 
few had been extended first to the middle classes, then 
to the people in the towns, and finally to the rural 
population. Under the beneficent rule of the Queen 
the bounds of democracy had been as widely enlarged 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 379 

as British statesmanship deemed prudent. The policy 
of trusting the people, of believing in the instincts of 
the masses, is more fully justified as the years increase. 
Broad based upon the people's will, His Majesty's 
throne is more secure than that of any other sovereign 
in the world; and of all peoples the British appear to 
be peculiarly fitted to be entrusted with the fullest 
rights and responsibilities of citizenship, without fear 
of abuse, or of danger to the destinies of a mighty 
nation upon whose possessions the sun never sets. 

The condition of Ireland had continued to im- 
prove. Agrarian crime had largely disappeared. But 
dangerous Fenian conspiracies had not been stamped 
out. During 1884 and the beginning of the follow- 
ing year, a number of political outrages occurred. 
Plots were formed in I^ew York, Paris, Brussels, and 
Dublin, for wrecking public buildings in Great Brit- 
ain. A criminal society called the "Avengers" was 
discovered in Dublin. The object of its members 
was "the removal" of obnoxious witnesses, jurors, and 
judges. An attempt to promote dynamite explosions 
in Birmingham, led to the arrest of two Fenians named 
Daly and Egan, who were convicted and sent to 
prison, the former for life and the latter for twenty 
years. For some months a state of terror existed in 
London. A series of explosions occurred at Victoria 
Station, two stations on the Underground Railroad, in 
St. James's Square, and in Scotland Yard, the head- 
quarters of the Metropolitan police. After an 
interval an attempt was made to destroy London 
Bridge; in January, 1885, the House of Commons and 
Westminister Hall were partly wrecked by dynamite 
explosions, two policemen being seriously injured, and 
a similar outrage occurred at the Tower. Two men 
named Cunningham and Burton were arrested, found 



380 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

guilty of having promoted all these explosions, and 
sentenced to penal servitude for life. During their 
trial an unsuccessful attempt was made to wreck the 
Admiralty, and the authors of the outrage escaped 
detection. With these dastardly crimes the dynamite 
conspiracies came to an end. A resolution passed by 
the Senate of the United States, led to steps being 
taken to check the unrestrained liberty criminals had 
previously enjoyed, in carrying on in Great Britain 
a campaign of outrage and assassination organised and 
directed from America. The good sense of the Amer- 
ican people had at length triumphed over ignorance 
and the exigencies of political parties. 

From the time of its formation, potent forces of 
demoralisation had been at work in the Government. 
Success had not attended the effort to reunite the 
Liberal party by agitation against the House of Lords. 
Instead of healing differences the ill-considered cam- 
paign had only widened those that already existed and 
created others. The Whigs were opposed on many 
questions to the Gladstonian Liberals; the Liberals 
disliked the way in which their hands were forced by 
the Radicals; and the Radicals, led by Mr. Chamber- 
lain, heartily reciprocated the animosity of both Whigs 
and Gladstonians. Notwithstanding the great array 
of talent it combined, the Ministry was perhaps the 
feeblest to which the destinies of the nation had ever 
been entrusted. Of the important questions with 
which it had been called upon to deal, there was 
scarcely one in home, colonial, or foreign policy, on 
which it had not been divided, with the inevitable 
results of weakness, vacillation, and disaster. The 
fall of Khartoum, and the death of Gordon, were the 
crowning disasters of the Government's policy. A 
vote of censure on their Egyptian policy was only 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 381 

rejected by 302 votes against 288. Had anyone but 
Mr. Gladstone been at the head of the Government 
the motion would have been carried by an over- 
whelming majority. By a series of shifts and com- 
promises the Cabinet managed to prolong its exist- 
ence till June, 1885. But soon after the reassembling 
of Parliament it was evident that its discreditable 
course was almost run. 

The discussion of the Redistribution of Seats Bill 
delayed the introduction of the Budget till an un- 
usually late period of the session. When it was at 
length brought forward several of Mr. Childers' pro- 
posals met with strong opposition. An amendment, 
worded so as to unite all the elements of discontent, 
was carried against the Government on June 8th, by 
264 votes to 252. During the debate more than a 
dozen Liberals left the House, and seventy-six were 
absent when the division was taken. Whether the 
Government had practically arranged for its own de- 
feat' is uncertain. The accusation was openly made 
at the time, and led to a good deal of recrimination. 
But the vote, and the resignation of the Ministry 
which followed, were far from being viewed as 
disasters by Liberals. The Government had covered 
itself with odium. E'ot one of its supporters grieved 
over its downfall; many could ill-disguise their feeh 
ings of exultation at having been relieved from the 
responsibility of supporting an administration which 
for months had been drifting to destruction. At most 
the catastrophe could only have been delayed a few 
weeks. The Irish Crimes Act expired in the Autumn. 
The question whether it should be renewed in its 
original, or some modified form, was one upon which 
the Cabinet must have split. Mr. Gladstone, Mr. 
Chamberlain, Lord Rosebery, and others were opposed 



382 POLITICAL TROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

to any further resort to coercion. Agrarian crime 
liad practically ceased to exist in Ireland, and min- 
isters had no wish to face a general election under 
the new conditions created by the Franchise and Re- 
distribution of Seats Acts, with the disadvantages of a 
coercion policy hung round their necks. A bid had 
to be made for the Parnellite vote, lest it should be 
captiired by the Conservatives, who for some months 
had been indirectly seeking an alliance with the Irish 
Nationalists. On the other hand Lord Spencer and 
the Whig section of the Cabinet had pronounced in 
favour of maintaining exceptional powers for the 
preservation of law and order in Ireland. If no 
compromise between these hostile sections of the Min- 
istry could be effected a rupture was inevitable. As 
a matter of party tactics, therefore, the Liberals were 
heartily glad their feeble and discredited Govern- 
ment had been defeated on its financial proposals. 
The odium of renewing, or the responsibility of aban- 
doning the Irish Crimes Act had not only been got 
rid of, but had been shifted on to the shoulders of the 
Conservatives, who could not possibly reap any glory, 
and might fall upon disaster, during the brief interval 
that remained before the work of registration through- 
out the constituencies could be completed, and a dis- 
solution take place. 

If the Liberals were demoralised the Conservatives 
were far from being united. Under the aggressive 
leadership of Lord Randolph Churchill a revolt had 
been fostered against the authority of Sir Stafford 
Northcote, and, to a less degree, of Lord Salisbury. 
The action of the two leaders in committing their 
follow^ers to the chief provisions in the Redistribution 
Bill, was bitterly resented by the Tory democrats bent 
upon making political capital. The Fourth Party 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 383 

was now a power that had to be reckoned with. Sir 
Michael Hicks-Beach had joined the ranks of the 
faction, and supported Lord Randolph Churchill in 
openly defying the authority of Sir Stafford North- 
cote. When the Conservatives were called upon to 
form a government the Fourth Party dictated its 
own terms. With the bluntness which characterised 
his brilliant but brief political career, Lord Randolph 
Churchill demanded that Sir Stafford Northcote 
should be transferred to the Upper Chamber, and 
that Sir M. Hicks-Beach should be made Leader of 
the House of Commons. Accordingly Sir Stafford 
was created Earl of Iddesleigh, and given the nominal 
post of First Lord of the Treasury, which had been 
associated with the premiership since the days of 
Walpole. Lord Salisbury was Prime Minister and 
Foreign Secretary; Lord Randolph Churchill took 
the Secretaryship of State for India, and secured ap- 
pointments for all his personal adherents, including 
Mr. A. J. Balfour, who became President of the Local 
Government Board. Mr. Gibson, who had rendered 
great services to his party, was raised to the peerage 
as Lord Ashbourne, and made Chancellor of Ireland, 
and Lord Carnarvon was appointed Lord-Lieutenant. 
Largely owing to the efforts of Lord Randolph 
Churchill a working alliance was formed between the 
Conservatives, who were in a minority in the House 
of Commons, and the Parnellites. Lord Carnarvon 
announced that the Government would not renew the 
Crimes Act, but would rely upon the ordinary law. 
An Irish Land Purchase Bill was introduced by Lord 
Ashbourne and speedily passed. It afforded extra- 
ordinary facilities to Irish tenants to become the 
owners of their holdings. Peasants who could pay 
down one-fourth of the purchase price of their farms 



384 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

were to receive the balance as a loan from the State 
upon very favourable terms. Holders who could ad- 
vance no part of the purchase money themselves, 
would be enabled to buy with the help of the State, 
twenty per cent of the purchase money being retained 
by the Land Commission until the tenant had paid off 
a part of his indebtedness. The amount to be ad- 
vanced by the State was limited to five millions: but 
subject to that restriction the measure gave every 
opportunity to Irish peasants to become the proprietors 
of the soil. Advantage has been largely taken of its 
provisions, and the operations of the Act produced 
excellent results in Ireland. 

Several other measures of importance were passed 
before the rising of Parliament. The rate for inland 
telegrams was reduced to sixpence. A Bill dealing 
with the housing of the working classes gave effect to 
many of the recommendations of a Royal Commission 
which had inquired into the question. Owners of 
houses were made liable to keep their property in a 
healthful and habitable condition, and in the event of 
reasonable care and precaution not being taken could 
be sued for damages arising out of sickness or death. 
Overcrowding was discouraged and checked by several 
special clauses, and the Local Government Board was 
empowered to undertake the building of lodging- 
houses for the working classes. 

Two significant events occurred before the dissolu- 
tion. On July 27th Dr. Walsh, who had long dis- 
tinguished himself among the Irish Roman Catholic 
bishops as the special champion of the Parnellites and 
the National League, was appointed Archbishop of 
Dublin. The conflict between the Pope and the Irish 
Nationalists had ended in a complete victory for the 
members who had recently been described by Mr. 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 385 

Bright as "disloyal to the Crown, directly hostile to 
Great Britain," and as having "displayed a boundless 
sympathy for criminals and for murderers." But as 
first the Liberals and then the Conservatives had not 
hesitated to ally themselves with the Irish Nationalists 
when their votes were useful, so it would, indeed, have 
been strange if Home had continued to discountenance 
the revolutionary forces to which British statesmen 
were fain to pay homage. 

Early in the electoral campaign that followed the 
prorogation of Parliament, Mr. Parnell announced 
that nothing would satisfy Irish demands but national 
independence. The restoration of Grattan's Parlia- 
ment in College Green, was defined as the irreducible 
minimum that would be accepted. Whether the 
Irish would insist upon complete separation might be 
an open question; British statesmen must be content 
to trust the Irish altogether. As to the tariff ques- 
tion, the Irish Parliament would wisely begin its 
activity by establishing a protective tariff to foster 
the few branches of industry in which the Irish could 
excel, but which had been crushed out by Great 
Britain. 

Mr. Gladstone at the beginning of his Midlothian 
campaign warned his followers that if they allowed 
themselves "by any follies among ourselves, to be so 
far divided and weakened, and split up in one place 
and another, that, although we are a majority over 
the Tory party, yet we are not a majority of the 
Parliament, not only the Tory party, and not only the 
Liberal party, but the Empire, will be in danger, 
because questions of the gravest moment, the most 
Imperial weight, and of vast consequences, will in all 
likelihood come forward, and there will be no party 
qualified to deal with them in that independence of 
35 



386 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

position wliich alone can ensure a satisfactory and an 
honourable issue."* Replying, on November lYtli, 
to a demand made by Mr. Parnell tliat lie sliould 
frame and make known the plan of tbe Liberal party 
for giving local self-government to Ireland, Mr. Glad- 
stone said, ^'tlie wish of Ireland clearly and constitu- 
tionally expressed deserves our most respectful and 
favourable attention. But then I do not yet know 
what the wish of Ireland is, nor shall I know it, nor 
can it be constitutionally expressed, until after the 
election which is now approaching. If I were so rash 
as to make myself the volunteer physician of the 
people of Ireland instead of those authorised doctors 
whom she is going to send by and by to the House 
of Commons, I should not only exhibit myself in a 
capacity I do not wish to fill before the public, but I 
should seriously damage any proposal which might 
have been hatched in my mind.'' 

Extraordinary interest centred in the general elec- 
tion that followed. The most experienced judges 
could form no estimate as to the use the two and a 
half million voters who had been added to the elec- 
torate would make of their newly acquired power. 
In the boroughs, where the first results of the appeal 
to the country were made known, the decision was 
against the Liberals. A great change in public 
opinion had taken place in nearly all the large cen- 
tres of population since 1880. Even where Con- 
servative candidates failed to secure victory there was 
a marked increase in the Tory vote at the expense of 
the Liberal. Mr. Bright's majority was reduced to 
800 by Lord Randolph Churchill, and many members 
of the late Government were defeated. Of the 232 

*Mr. Gladstone's Speech at Edinburgh, November 9th, 



THE REFORM BILL OF 1884. 387 

borough seats in England alone, 118 were carried by 
Conservatives, 110 by Liberals, three by Inde- 
pendents, and one, at Liverpool, where the Irish vote 
was very strong, by a Parnellite. 

While the result of the contest hung in the balance, 
Mr. Gladstone appealed to the new voters in the coun- 
ties to give his party such a clear and strong majority 
over the combined forces of Conservatives and Par- 
nellites that the Liberal policy of justice to, and 
conciliation of Ireland, might be carried out irrespec- 
tive of the support of the Irish members. How far 
this appeal influenced the counties is doubtful. It 
certainly did not appeal to the more ignorant section 
of the agricultural labourers with the same force as 
the lavish promises of "three acres and a cow'' made 
by certain Radicals, and the socialistic doctrines 
preached by Mr. Chamberlain. When the final re- 
sults of the polling were declared, it was found that 
the Liberals numbered 333, the Conservatives 251, 
and the Parnellites 86. The prophecy of Mr. Par- 
nell had been fulfilled. lie was master of the 
situation. 



388 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CHiVPTER XIX. 



HOME RULE. 



A FEW days after the result of the appeal to the 
country was known, the air became thick with 
rumours as to what Mr. Gladstone proposed to do. 
The Liberals were pledged to bring in some scheme 
of local self-government for Ireland. Out of 103 
members, Ireland had returned 85 "authorised 
doctors" to direct Mr. Gladstone how to act as head 
"physician." Could he frame a measure of local 
government which would preserve the integrity of the 
Empire, and at the same time satisfy Mr. Parnell,who 
demanded an independent Parliament? During the 
first fortnight the idea that Mr. Gladstone would adopt 
Home Rule in the larger sense of the term was not 
seriously entertained. On December 16th a state- 
ment appeared in a provincial paper published at 
Leeds, for wliich city Mr. Herbert Gladstone had been 
returned. It pui-ported to give an outline of Mr. 
Gladstone's scheme for the creation of an Irish Parlia- 
ment. Although the Liberal leader denied that the 
announcement was an authentic representation of his 
views, it was soon regarded as substantially correct. 
Nothing definite, however, was to be learned. The 
members of Mr. Gladstone's late Cabinet were no 
better informed than the general public. We now 
know that the scheme had been launched wdth a view 
of ascertaining how far Liberals were prepared to go. 



HOME RULE. 389 

It was received from the first by a large section of 
the nation with indignation and dismay. Throughout 
Ulster it created an extraordinary sensation. An 
agitation sprang up which showed that if such a policy 
were carried into effect civil war might result. The 
Northern Whig, the chief Liberal paper in Ireland, de- 
clared emphatically against Home Rule. It was evi- 
dent that if Mr. Gladstone brought forward any such 
proposals he would forfeit the support of many 
Liberals, and perhaps wreck the party. Mr. Chamber- 
lain hastened to assert that all sections of the Liberal 
party were "determined that the integrity of the 
Empire shall be a reality and not an empty phrase. 
We shall allow no temptation and no threat to check 
our resolution to maintain unimpaired the effective 
union of the three kingdoms that owe allegiance to 
the sovereign." Mr. Trevelyan, Mr. Childers, and 
other Liberals spoke even more strongly against any 
measure which pointed towards a repeal of the Union. 
The new Parliament met for the transaction of 
business on January 21st, 1886. In the speech from 
the throne reference was made to "the attempt to 
excite the people of Ireland to hostility against the 
legislative union,'' and to the continued existence of 
organised intimidation in that country. Among the 
measures promised were bills for the reform of county 
government in Great Britain and the Sister Isle. In 
the debate that followed Mr. Gladstone cited a passage 
from his election address in favour of maintaining the 
supremacy of the Crown, the unity of the Empire, 
and the authority of Parliament. Subject to those 
conditions he was in favour of granting enlarged 
powers to every part of the Empire. As "an old 
parliamentary hand" he intended to preserve his free- 
dom of action, and to keep his own counsel until there 



390 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

miglit be a prospect of public benefit in making a 
movement forward. But in spite of tlie obscurity 
with which he expressed himself, it was evident that 
Mr. Gladstone saw nothing inconsistent with the su- 
premacy of the Crown, the unity of the Empire, and 
the authority of Parliament, in granting Ireland 
legislative independence. Lord Randolph Churchill 
seized the first opportunity to make it clear, that in the 
opinion of the Conservatives there was no halfway 
house between entire separation and absolute Im- 
perial control. The Local Government Bill of which 
the ministry had given notice, "would not come within 
any measureable distance of Mr. Parnell's object." 

In the events that followed the skilful tactics of the 
old parliamentary hand were visible. On January 
2 nth notice was given that the Government would 
ask leave two days later to introduce a bill for the 
purpose of suppressing the I^ational League and other 
dangerous associations, for the prevention of intimida- 
tion, and for the protection of life, property, and 
public order in Ireland. But Mr. Gladstone was not 
desirous of defeating the Government on their Irish 
policy. To have done so would have forced the 
Liberals to declare their own views. That could more 
safely be done after they had secured ofiice than 
before. It was therefore desirable to place the 
Government in a minority on a side issue. A suitable 
occasion was found in an amendment to the Address, 
moved by Mr. Jesse Collings, reflecting upon the 
Government for not having promised to afford agri- 
cultural labourers facilities to obtain small holdings. 
The "three acres and a cow" policy, and the theories 
of Messrs. Chamberlain, Collings, and Joseph Arch, 
about the land, had been refused by Mr. Gladstone a 
place in the authorised Liberal programme. They 



HOME RtJLB. 391 

formed part of tlie much larger "unauthorised" pro- 
gramme of Mr. Chamberlain, which had at one time 
threatened to prevent all sections of the Liberal party 
finding refuge under Mr. Gladstone's umbrella. But 
the present opportunity was too good a one to be 
missed. Mr. Gladstone threw the whole weight of his 
influence in favour of Mr. CoUings' amendment, which 
was carried by 331 votes against 252. The Ministry 
accepted its defeat and resigned. 

Mr. Gladstone experienced more trouble in forming 
a government than he had anticipated. Many efforts 
were made to induce Lord Hartington, Mr. Goschen, 
and Sir Henry James, to take office, but without 
success. The adhesion of Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. 
Trevelyan was only secured by assurances that the 
Ministerial policy was to be one of inquiry and 
examination, and not necessarily one based on the 
idea of separate parliaments. Mr. John Morley was 
made Chief Secretary for Ireland; the positions held 
by Sir W. Harcourt and Mr. Childers in the previous 
Liberal Government, were now reversed, the former 
becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer and the latter 
going to the Home Office. Lord Spencer became 
President of the Council, and Lord Rosebery Secre- 
tary for Foreign Affairs, aided by Mr. Bryce as Under- 
Secretary. For the first time in the history of the 
United Kingdom a working man was permitted to 
hold a place in the government of the country. Mr. 
Henry Broadhurst, who started in life as a stone- 
mason, and had risen by the force of his own char- 
acter and abilities to his present position, was ap- 
pointed Under-Secretary of the Home Office. 

Feverish excitement and unrest followed Mr. Glad- 
stone's return to office. A feeling of insecurity existed 
throughout the country. Mr. Gladstone had of late 



392 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

years so often taken both his party and the nation by 
surprise, that no one knew what might occur. But 
though the country was prepared to learn that the 
Government proposals for dealing with Ireland would 
be of a startling and drastic character, the constitu- 
tional revolution involved by Mr. Gladstone's scheme 
came as a shock to the whole of the educated classes. 
Until Mr. Gladstone explained his Bill ^^to amend 
the provision for the future government of Ireland/' 
moderate men of both parties had refused to believe 
that the veteran statesman would consent to pull down 
the constitution to please Mr. Parnell, and keep him- 
self in power. The Bill provided for the establish- 
ment in Ireland of a separate executive government 
solely responsible to a legislature sitting in Dublin, 
and with full power to amend the civil and criminal 
law, regulate the protection of life and property, and 
revise existing contracts. A number of highly 
complicated provisions were made for maintaining the 
supremacy of the Crown. All Irish representatives 
were excluded from the Imperial Parliament, and in 
violation of the constitutional principle that taxation 
and representation go together, Ireland was to be re- 
quired to contribute £3,242,000 a year to the revenue 
of Great Britain. The Home Rule Bill, as it was 
termed, was accompanied by a Land Purchase Bill 
under which the Irish Parliament were to be enabled 
to buy out the landlords and transfer the soil to the 
tenants by means of loans from the taxpayers of Great 
Britain. 

Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Trevelyan withdrew from 
the Government. A great schism was created in the 
Liberal Party. The Liberal press of the country was 
almost unanimous in condemning the two measures 
of the Cabinet. ]!^either the masric of Mr. Glad- 



HOME RULE. 393 

stone's eloquence, nor the efforts of tlie E'ational 
Liberal Federation to coerce Members of Parliament, 
could induce a large number of Liberals to accept 
proposals wbich they felt convinced would ultimately 
lead to separation, financial disaster, and civil war. 
Party passion was inflamed to the utmost. Serious 
riots took place in Ulster. ISTothing that has happened 
during the century caused such bitter political 
division, recrimination, and violent personalities. The 
courtesies of public life were suspended. A torrent 
of invective and opprobrious epithets was hurled 
against Mr. Gladstone, whose partisans in turn de- 
nounced the Liberals who refused to accept the new 
Irish policy of their Chief with a vehemence and 
fierceness almost without parallel in English history. 
The Whigs under the leadership of Lord Hartington 
formed themselves into an association of Liberal 
Unionists, which was joined by large numbers of men 
throughout the country. Mr. Chamberlain was sup- 
ported by fifty of the Radical members of the House 
of Commons. On the second reading of the Home 
Rule Bill the Ministry were defeated by 341 against 
311 votes. Mnety-three Liberals voted against the 
Government. Mr. Gladstone had satisfied Mr. Par- 
nell, and had destroyed his own party. It has never 
recovered. 

The session was brought to a conclusion as quickly 
as possible, and on June 26th Parliament was dis- 
solved. In the fiercely fought contest that followed 
Mr. Gladstone was driven to take up a more extreme 
attitude. He denounced the Union between Great 
Britain and Ireland as "a paper union, obtained by 
force and fraud." The character and policy of Mr. 
Pitt, the greatest statesman of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, — perhaps, with all his shortcomings, the greatest 



394 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

statesman England lias ever produced, — were assailed 
with a vehemence which is seldom extended even to 
living opponents. Industrious explorers routed in the 
garbage heaps of a past century to furnish Mr. Glad- 
stone with evidence in support of his assertions. Age 
and experience which render most men more tolerant 
had only added to the imperiousness of Mr. Glad- 
stone's naturally imperious nature. Always impatient 
of opposition, and ill-fitted to bear constraint, never a 
conciliatory chief to his colleagues, few of whom ever 
shared his confidence, Mr. Gladstone had become 
til rough years, and the passionate adulation of large 
numbers of his fellow-men in whose eyes he could do 
no wrong, more arbitrary, more absolute, more over- 
bearing in the imposition of his will upon the mem- 
bers of his Cabinet, and upon his supporters, than any 
statesman in the annals of the British Parliament. 
That colleagues bowed before him almost with the 
same servile submission as a large portion of the gen- 
eral public, is only additional evidence of the greatness 
of his intellect, which dwarfed the mental capacity 
of other men, the rare magnetism of his personality, 
the intensity of his convictions, the peculiar charm 
and courtesy of his manner. 

The general election resulted in an overwhelming 
defeat of the Government. To the new parliament 
tliere were returned 316 Conservatives, 74 Liberal 
Unionists, 19C Gladstonian Liberals, and 84 Parnell- 
ites, a majority of 110 against Home Rule. Mr. 
Gladstone had asked the country to choose between 
Lord Salisbury's Irish policy of "twenty years' reso- 
lute government," and the scheme for establishing a 
separate parliament in Dublin. But when the nation 
had given its verdict he refused to accept it as a final 
one. The Government resigned. Lord Salisbury again 



HOME RULE. 395 

became Prime Minister. Lord Randolph Cliurcliill 
was made Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of 
the House of Commons, a position he suddenly threw 
up four nionths later, owing to the refusal of his 
colleagues to reduce the estimates presented by the 
departments for the support of the Army and IN'avy. 
In the leadership of the House he was succeeded by 
Mr. W. H. Smith, and after some negotiations Mr. 
Goschen became Chancellor of the Exchequer, — the 
first step in a policy of coalition between the Liberal 
Unionists and the Conservatives. Mr. Chamberlain 
and his followers made endeavours to heal the schism 
in the Liberal ranks, but nothing came of the Round 
Table conferences. 

In Ireland, the Parnellites devised a new organisa- 
tion called the Plan of Campaign. The Judicial 
rents fixed by the machinery of Mr. Gladstone's Land 
Acts, were declared to be impossible. But the real 
causes of the new agitation were the grave abuses 
which existed on the estate of Lord Clanricarde, in 
Galway, and on the properties of a few other excep- 
tional landlords. The Plan of Campaign was an 
ingenious one. Tenants on an estate were to decide 
how much of the rent they owed should be paid. 
Each tenant bound himself to abide by the decision 
of the majority, not to act without the other tenants, 
and to accept no offer which was not extended to his 
fellows. A committee was to be appointed, who 
would take charge of the reduced rents. These were 
to be tendered to the landlord or his agent. If they 
were refused, the money was to be used to support 
tenants of the estate dispossessed either by sale or 
ejectment. Attempts of the Government to suppress 
this new form of agitation under the National League 
were not successful, until additional powers were ob- 



396 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

tained during the session of 1887 by tlie passing of a 
new Crimes Act. Boycotting had been largely re- 
vived, and throughout Ireland agitation was carried 
on with ceaseless activity. Unfortunately during the 
struggle with the forces of disorder Mr. Gladstone 
arrayed himself against the Government. His state- 
ment that there was notliing immoral or unlawful in 
^ ^exclusive dealing," was generally understood as a 
declaration in favour of boycotting, and did much 
harm. The resistance of the law was approved by the 
advice to his followers to "remember Mitchels- 
town," — a place where deplorable and fatal riots had 
taken place during evictions on the estate of the 
Countess of Kingston. 

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach retired from the position 
of Chief Secretary for Ireland owing to ill health, 
but retained his seat in the Cabinet, and was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. Balfour, who proved himself to be an 
administrator of great firmness, tact, and unfailing 
good temper under the most exasperating conditions. 
The I^ational League was proclaimed as an illegal 
organisation, and Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Sullivan, and 
other members of parliament were prosecuted and 
temporarily imprisoned. The bitterness of the con- 
flict in which the Government was engaged was in- 
creased by the publication of the famous series of 
articles in The TimeSy which attempted to identify 
Mr. Parnell and other ITationalist members with 
political murders and dynamite outrages. These 
charges which were indignantly repudiated by Mr. 
Parnell and his followers, gave rise to a number of 
violent and deplorable scenes in the House of 
Commons. 

A further measure dealing with the Irish Land 
question was passed during the session. It aimed to 



HOME RULE. 397 

supply some of the omissions of previous legislation, 
and to remedy serious difficulties to which Mr. Glad- 
stone's Land Acts had given rise. Judicial rents had 
been fixed for a term of fifteen years. But a heavy 
fall in agricultural prices had turned the fair rents 
of the Land Courts into rack-rents, which, under the 
altered conditions, tenants were unable to pay. The 
Land Act of 1887 provided that judicial rents might 
be re-adjusted every three years according to the rise 
or fall of agTicultural produce; it admitted lease- 
holders to the benefits of the Land Act of 1881, so that 
they might obtain a revision of their rents; and made 
other concessions which Mr. Chamberlain described as 
generous to a degree, and going further than any 
previous Government had attempted to go. 

The year 1887 will always be a memorable one in 
British history. It marked the completion of the 
fiftieth year of the Queen's reign, an event which was 
celebrated amidst rejoicings and demonstrations of 
loyalty throughout the Empire. In London Her 
Majesty's Jubilee was observed on the 21st of June. 
A thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey was 
attended by the Queen and members of the Royal 
Family, representatives of the Colonies, eleven Indian 
Princes, many foreign Kings and royalties, and a vast 
crowd of all that was great and illustrious in the 
United Kingdom. The procession to the Abbey was 
the most splendid that had ever been witnessed in 
the Metropolis; the scene within the great historic 
fane, which all English people know and love so well, 
was at once the most brilliant and solemn that had 
ever taken place even within those walls; the demon- 
strations of loyalty and personal devotion to the 
Sovereign by the millions of people who thronged the 
streets, were without parallel in the history of the 



398 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

Empire or of the world. The wonderful order pre- 
served, and the good behaviour of the enormous multi- 
tudes were referred to with the highest admiration 
by the Queen, in the touching letter she afterwards 
addressed to the nation. 

The great stimulus given to Imperial feeling by the 
Queen's Jubilee was reflected in the measures passed 
by Parliament during 1888. Improvements were 
made in the defence of the ports and coaling stations 
of the Empire; a special squadron, the cost of which 
was partly borne by the Colonies themselves, was 
provided for the protection of Australasian commerce. 
Lord Wolseley startled the country by re-stating at a 
public dinner what he had said without any notice 
being taken of his words, eighteen months before, in 
giving evidence before a Koyal Commission. He de- 
clared that the English people knew nothing of the 
true military position of the nation ; that our defences 
at home and abroad were in an unsatisfactory condi- 
tion; and that our military forces were not organised 
or equipped as they should be to guarantee even the 
safety of the Metropolis. This and other causes 
forced the subject of the national defences of the Em- 
pire upon the attention of the Government, and led 
to a great programme being undertaken in following 
years for increasing the navy, and reorganising the 
army. 

In other respects the session was a memorable one 
in the history of political progress. It witnessed an 
entire reform of local government in England. The 
administrative powers of the Justices of Quarter 
Sessions were transferred by the Local Government 
Act to County Councils, elected by the people. 
County magistrates who had up to this time enjoyed 
feudal privileges in the government of the rural dis- 



HOME RULE. 399 

tricts, were stripped of almost everything but their 
judicial functions. Though the administration of 
county affairs by Quarter Sessions was an anomaly, 
and conflicted with the sentiment and progress of the 
nation, there was little demand for reform. There 
were no flagrant abuses to be removed. As the chief 
ratepayers of the counties, the magistrates were per- 
sonally interested in maintaining honest and economi- 
cal administration. Many county gentlemen devoted 
great ability and a large amount of time to the manage- 
ment of county affairs, which were conducted in a 
manner that gave little ground for dissatisfaction. But 
the extension of the franchise to the counties rendered 
it necessary to sweep away the old system of local 
government by the privileged and irresponsible few. 
The new County Councils were established on a 
democratic basis, and have proved a great success. If 
they are not as economical as the Quarter Sessions, 
they are far more efficient. AVith the exception of 
the police, over whom the new Councils and the 
Quarter Sessions exercise joint control, the entire ad- 
ministration of rural government was transferred to 
the people. Local government of the people, by the 
people, for the people, took the place of a not un- 
beneficent rule of the aristocracy. The large cities 
were constituted as counties by themselves. Boroughs 
with over ten thousand inhabitants retained their 
municipal form of administration; all smaller towns 
were practically merged into the county. For the 
first time a serious attempt was made to deal with 
the great question of the^ government of London. 
The Metropolis was created into an administrative 
county; the inefficient and corrupt Board of Works 
extinguished, and enlarged powers conferred upon the 
new representative body. But the provisions deal- 



400 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

ing with London were tlie least satisfactory portion 
of the Act of 1888. They did not go far enough, 
and failed to put an end to the confusion, inefficiency, 
and extravagance, resulting from over-lapping and 
conflicting authorities. 

In addition to reforming the system of county 
government, the Ministry carried provisions readjust- 
ing the relations between local and Imperial finance, 
and lightened the burdens imposed upon the rate- 
payers. These and other proposals, a further revision 
of the rules of parliamentary procedure, which were 
rendered much more stringent, and the opposition 
offered by the Parnellites and by many Liberals to 
all efforts of the Government, rendered an Autumn 
session necessary. Under an important scheme intro- 
duced by Mr. Goschen, the National Debt was con- 
verted, effecting a large saving to the taxpayers. 
Financially the measure was one of the most impor- 
tant passed during the last half of the century. It 
Avas conceived in a sense of equity both to the public 
creditor and to the taxpayer, and from the first com- 
manded general confidence. Lord Ashbourne's Irish 
Land Purchase Act was renewed, and the first five 
millions having been exhausted within three years, a 
second similar sum was placed at the disposal of the 
Commissioners to enable tenants to buy their holdings. 

In response to the reiterated demands of the Irish 
members a special commission was appointed by 
Parliament to investigate the charges made by The 
Times, in the articles entitled ^^Parnellism and 
Crime," against various Irish representatives. After 
an enquiry extending over many months the Judges 
reported in February, 1890: (I) That the accused 
collectively were not members of a conspiracy to estab- 
lish the independence of Ireland, but that some of 



HOME RULE. 401 

them, with Mr. Davitt, founded and joined in the Land 
League organisation, with the intention of bringing 
about the absolute independence of Ireland as a 
separate nation. (II) That the respondents conspired 
by coercion and intimidation to prevent the payment 
of rents, so as to impoverish and expel the Irish land- 
lords who were styled the ''English garrison." 
(Ill) That the charge of insincerity in denouncing 
crime was not established, and that the facsimile 
letters were forgeries. (IV) That the respondents 
disseminated newspapers tending to incite to sedi- 
tion and crime. (Y) That the respondents incited 
to intimidation, but not to the commission of other 
crime; and that they did not pay persons to commit 
crimes. (VI) That some of the respondents — es- 
pecially Mr. Davitt — did express bona fide disapproval 
of crime ; but that they did not denounce intimidation 
which led to crime and outrage. (VII) That the 
respondents defended persons charged mth agrarian 
crime, but that they did not make payments to secure 
the escape of criminals from justice. (VIII) That 
they compensated persons injured in the commission 
of crime. (IX) That the respondents invited the 
assistance and co-operation of, and accepted subscrip- 
tions from, Patrick Ford, a known advocate of crime 
and of the use of dynamite; but that it had not been 
proved that they knew the Clan-na-Gael to be the 
controller of the League, or the collector of money for 
the parliamentary fund; that they did obtain the 
assistance and co-operation of the Physical Force 
party in America including the Clan-na-Gael, and so 
abstained from condemning the action of that party. 
Three special charges against Mr. Parnell — that he 
knew Sheridan and Boyton to have been organising 
outrage at the time of the Kilmainham negotiations, 



402 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

and that lie wished to use them to put down outrage; 
that he was intimate with the leading Invincibles, and 
recognised the Phoenix Park murders as their handi- 
work; and that he enabled Frank Byrne to escape 
from justice to France in 1883 — were all declared not 
proven. 

Although agrarian crime had decreased in Ireland, 
and the power of coercive conspiracies had sensibly 
abated, the condition of the country remained far from 
satisfactory. The Plan of Campaign was carried on 
with undiminished vigour in spite of the efforts of 
the Government, and the number of farms for which 
it was impossible to find tenants had largely increased. 
A political tour in Ireland undertaken by Mr. Morley 
and Lord Ripon, and the attitude of Mr. Gladstone, 
who appeared to exult in the difficulties which beset 
the Government in endeavouring to maintain law and 
order, did much to aggravate the situation, which was 
not improved by the arrest and conviction of several 
Irish members of Parliament, including Messrs. Cox, 
DiUon, W. O'Brien, Plane, Condon, J. O'Kelly, J. 
O'Brien, J. E. Redmond, and Sheehan. 

A renewed attempt made by the Pope to check the 
active participation of the Roman Catholic clergy 
in the political agitation, led to no good result. A 
visit of Monsignor Perisco to Ireland was followed by 
the issue of a Papal Edict condemning the Plan of 
Campaign, and boycotting, and the clergy and laity 
were exhorted not to transgress the bounds of justice 
in endeavouring to secure reforms. A schism in the 
Catholic Church was threatened, and a visit of Arch- 
bishop Walsh to Rome led to the announcement that 
the Pope, without retracting the position he had taken 
up regarding the rights of property, the binding force 
of contracts, and the unqualified condemnation of 



HOME RULE. 403 

the Plan of Campaign and boycotting, intended Ms 
decree "to affect the domain of morals alone." By 
this curious expedient a schism was averted, and for 
all practical purposes the Papal rescript became a 
dead letter. 

A great programme of naval construction was 
sanctioned by Parliament in 1889. The proposals 
of the Government extended over a period of seven 
years, and involved an expenditure of nearly twenty- 
two millions. Parliament was thus pledged to a 
definite expenditure over a series of years, — a new 
departure not without danger, and opposed to the 
principles of Liberal finance. But the opposition to 
Mr. Goschen's scheme was unsuccessful. An amend- 
ment, however, that the cost of the contracts should 
be met by sums voted from year to year, was sup- 
ported by the whole of Mr. Gladstone's party. The 
justification for the unprecedented course taken by the 
Government lay in the fact, that by providing for the 
expenditure of a specially assigned capital fund, the 
additions to the navy so urgently needed could be 
made more quickly, efficiently, and economically. A 
liberal measure of local self-government, similar to 
that passed for England, was granted to Scotland. A 
bill for improving intermediate education in Wales, 
and another for establishing a special Government De- 
partment of Agriculture, were among the minor 
measures carried during the session. The year is also 
memorable for the great strike of dock-labourers in 
London, which cost the parties concerned over two 
millions of money, broke down unjust and oppressive 
conditions under which the men were employed, but, 
unfortunately, struck a blow at the trade of the port 
of London, from which it has never fully recovered. 

The death of Mr. John Bright removed one of the 



404: POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

most striking figures in political life. Though not a 
statesman, Mr. Bright had for nearly half a century 
been a great force in public life. It was justly said 
that few men had ever applied so consistently to their 
public conduct the moral standard by which they 
regulated their private lives. His most bitter oppon- 
ent never doubted the sincerity and disinterestedness 
of Mr. Bright's views. As a speaker he was, perhaps, 
the greatest master of pure English, the most truly 
eloquent orator the House of Commons has ever 
heard. In the judgment of men who had listened to 
all three, the eloquence of Pitt and of Fox at its best 
was inferior to the finest efforts of Mr. Bright. His 
style was unique. It was always lucid, and the lan- 
guage singularly simple, and free from affectation. 
But in its fire and vigour, its sustained imagery and 
metaphor, it was admirably fitted to give expression to 
the noble thoughts which should secure for him im- 
perishable fame. 

With a large programme of important legislation 
to deal with, the Government during the session of 
1890 frittered away its time and oj)portunities, and 
accomplished little of value. At the last moment the 
principal measures under discussion had to be aban- 
doned, and the next session of Parliament was fixed 
for I^ovember instead of at the opening of the new 
year. Events had shaken the credit of the Ministry. 
Though their policy in Ireland had been attended 
with much success, their inability to carry out useful 
legislation, their delay in proposing any scheme for 
extending a moderate measure of local self-govern- 
ment to Ireland, and other causes, had undermined 
public confidence. Humours of an early dissolution 
were in the air. The spirits of the opposition were 
rising, everything pointed to a triumph of the com- 



HOME RULE. 405 

bined forces of Home Rule. At this critical juncture 
the alliance between Mr. Gladstone and the Irish 
members, and the Irish party itself, were rent in 
sunder. Causes wholly apart from politics led to a 
great change in the situation; and by the misfortunes 
of their opponents the Government were able to profit 
very largely. 

It had been known for some time that Mr. Parnell 
was co-respondent in a suit for divorce brought by 
Captain O'Shea against his wife. From this charge, 
it had been declared, the Irish leader would emerge 
"without a stain on his honour." A denial had been 
entered to the suit, but when it came on for hearing 
no one appeared for Mr. Parnell, and the case was 
undefended. With the evidence given it is unneces- 
sary to deal. But some of the minor disclosures 
damaged Mr. Parnell almost as much as the more 
serious offence of which he was found guilty. The 
renting of houses under false names, and other mean 
subterfuges to which he had resorted, added to the 
painful impression created by the trial. The de- 
cision of the Court was given on ISTovember l7th. 
It was known that Mr. Parnell did not intend resign- 
ing the leadership of his party. On November 25th, 
Mr. Gladstone informed him through Mr. McCarthy, 
that if he continued to hold the position it would be 
"productive of consequences disastrous in the highest 
degree to the cause of Ireland," and would render Mr. 
Gladstone's leadership of the Liberals, based as it 
mainly was on the prosecution of the Irish cause, 
almost a nullity. This message was received with 
contempt by Mr. Parnell. Representations made by 
Mr. Morley were not successful. Mr. Gladstone 
personally expostulated with Mr. Parnell, but failed 
to shake his determination to remain at the head of 



406 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

the Irish party. On the following day the Irish 
members, who knew nothing of these expostulations, 
unanimously re-elected Mr. Parnell chairman, with 
great enthusiasm. But the moment the Nationalists 
learned that Mr. Gladstone would retire if Mr. Par- 
nell remained their leader, the majority of them 
turned against their chief. A bitter feud now began. 
Mr. Parnell appealed to the Irish people, against their 
representatives who wanted to throw him to ^^the Eng- 
lish wolves" howling for his destruction. The wire- 
pullers of the Liberal party were declared to have 
sapped the integrity and independence of the section 
of the Irish Parliamentary party who had listened to 
Mr. Gladstone's remonstrance. In l^ovember, 1889, 
Mr. Parnell had been invited to Hawarden, and dur- 
ing a confidential interview with Mr. Gladstone and 
Mr. Morley the proposals for a new scheme of Home 
Pule were laid before him. These Mr. Parnell now 
made public, denounced them as totally inadequate, 
and stated that Mr. Morley had endeavoured to in- 
duce him to accept them by promising him the post 
of Chief Secretary for Ireland in the next Liberal 
Ministry. The manifesto ended by warning the Irish 
people against the danger of any alliance with either 
English party. The contest was carried on with a 
rancour, and personal animosity which only political 
and religious conflicts can arouse. The hatred which 
the Nationalists had hitherto concentrated upon Irish 
landlords, was now directed against each other. 
Scenes of violence and rioting occurred in many 
places. With the publication of a declaration signed 
by twenty-two Roman Catholic bishops pronouncing 
against Mr. Parnell, his influence began rapidly to 
decline. But the greater the odds against him the 
fiercer was the energy with which he fought. Under 



HOME RULE. 40^ 

the combined effects of repeated defeat, despond- 
ency, and over-exertion, Mr. Parnell's constitution 
broke down, and a cold caught at a public meeting, 
caused his death on October 6th, 1891. With the 
disappearance of their remarkable leader the E^a- 
tionalists lost their cohesion as a party, and have not 
succeeded in regaining the solidarity which for many 
years made them so great a force in the British 
Parliament. 

The dissensions among their opponents greatly 
strengthened the position of the Government, who 
during the session 1890-91 carried an important Land 
Purchase Bill for Ireland to take the place of the 
Ashbourne Acts. Since the passing of Mr. Glad- 
stone's first Irish Land Act, Parliament had travelled 
much further on the dangerous road of state socialism. 
Benewed efforts of the legislature to remedy defects, 
or overcome difficulties created by previous Acts, in- 
variably gave rise to fresh complications and further 
demands upon the credit of the State. The Land Pur- 
chase Bill brought in by Mr. Balfour, who had 
become the leader of the House of Commons on the 
death of Mr. W. H. Smith, was nothing less than 
state landlordism on a gigantic scale. Its only 
justification was that it carried to a logical conclusion 
the work begun by measures previously passed by the 
legislature. But if an example and a warning ever 
be needed of the disastrous consequences of attempting 
to deal with the land by measures founded partly on 
confiscation, partly on socialism, and partly on a re- 
gard for the rights of property, a study of Irish Land 
Legislation will afford striking examples. 

The Fee Grant proposals of the Government prac- 
tically established free education. Under the Bill 
the existing system of education was not touched. 



408 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

The measure simply offered to all Voluntary and 
Board Schools under the Elementary Education Acts, 
an extra annual grant of ten shillings per scholar 
calculated on the average attendance. All schools 
which accepted the grant, became free if their aver- 
age fees did not exceed ten shillings a head per year; 
where the fees amounted to more the schools were 
allowed to charge the excess up to a certain limit. 

The Factories and Workshops Act of 1891 greatly 
strengthened and extended the numerous measures 
which had previously been passed. Its object was to 
bring all factories and workshops, except domestic 
workshops, which were left to be governed by the 
general laws relating to public health, up to the same 
level in regard to ventilation, overcrowding, and other 
sanitary requirements ; to fix a maximum working day 
of twelve hours for women, with one and a half hours 
for meals, to pro^dde for proper means of escape in 
case of fire; and to remedy some of the evils of 
"sweating." Mr. Sydney Buxton moved a new clause 
prohibiting the employment of children under eleven 
years of age. Opposition being raised, — Sir J. Gorst 
stated that the delegates to the Berlin Conference 
were unanimously in favour of raising the limit of age 
to twelve. The Home Secretary pointed out that 
operatives from all parts of the country were opposed 
to the clause, which affected more than 175,000 chil- 
dren. As to the Berlin Conference, its recommenda- 
tions had not been carried out by any nation. But in 
spite of the attitude of the Government the new clause 
was adopted. 

The Small Agricultural Holdings Act, passed in 
1892, marked a new departure in English land legis- 
lature. It was both an experiment, and a measure 
designed to secure the support of rural voters for the 



HOME RULE. 409 

Unionist Party. But the Act was undoubtedly an in- 
teresting effort in the right direction. Reference has 
already been made to the evils arising from the migra- 
tion of the rural population to the towns. The new 
Act aimed at checking this movement by offering 
agricultural labourers facilities for acquiring land, 
and working it for their own profit. County Councils 
were empowered to borrow money to an amount that 
would not involve a charge upon the rates exceeding 
for any one year a penny in the pound, and to pur- 
chase land and resell it in small holdings of from one 
to fifty acres in extent. One-fifth of the purchase 
money had to be paid down by the peasant proprietor, 
the remainder being cleared off by instalments 
spread over a term of years. Holdings not exceeding 
fifteen acres might be let instead of being sold. Pro- 
vision was also made by which the local authority 
under certain conditions might assist purchasers to 
erect necessary buildings. 



410 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

THE WRECK OF THE LIBERAL PARTY. 

In opposing Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule scheme, 
the Conservatives had declared their readiness to 
grant to Ireland the same local self-government as 
that enjoyed by Great Britain. A Bill embodying 
their proposals had been repeatedly promised, but, 
until the session of IS 92, never introduced. It was 
now brought forward by Mr. Balfour, who explained 
that the aims of the Bill had always formed part of 
the cardinal policy of the Government. Before Mr. 
Gladstone had promised a separate legislature to Ire- 
land, the Conservative scheme for establishing an 
elective system of local taxation and administration 
would have been regarded as liberal and democratic. 
Though the powers to be conferred upon County, 
and Baronial or Parish Councils, were accompanied 
by safeguards against corruption and the oppression 
of minorities, the measure was a generous one, and 
under more opportune circumstances might have been 
accepted as an earnest attempt to satisfy the demands 
of the Irish people. But from the first there was no 
chance of the Bill being passed. There was no en- 
thusiasm for it among the supporters of the Govern- 
ment. The majority of Unionists held that Ireland 
was not in a condition to warrant the creation of 
nearly two hundred local democratic assemblies, each 
of which would probably become a centre of agita- 
tion for carrying on the war against landowners and 



WRECK OF LIBERAL PARTY. 411 

the ^' English garrison." On the other hand the Irish 
Nationalists, with the support of Mr. Gladstone be- 
hind them in favour of an Irish Parliament, de- 
nounced the Bill as " a sham " and " an insult." But 
though the Irish Local Government Bill was only in- 
troduced to be abandoned after its second reading, it 
did excellent service in settling the vexed question 
how far the Conservatives were prepared to go to 
meet the demands of the Home Rulers. Their Bill 
showed that they were prepared to concede the same 
system of county government to Ireland as they had 
extended to England and Scotland, but that they de- 
clined to go farther to catch votes or conciliate dis- 
loyal agitation. 

The appeal to the country in 1892 was made upon 
these lines. Mr. Gladstone adhered to the broad out- 
lines of his Home Rule Bill, except that Irish repre- 
sentatives were to be retained in the Imperial Parlia- 
ment. The Anti-Parnellites gave an unqualified sup- 
port to Mr. Gladstone ; the Parnellites demanded that 
any Home Pule scheme should provide that the veto 
of the Crown should never be used against the Parlia- 
ment to be set up in Dublin, except upon the advice 
of the Irish executive, and that the power of the 
Imperial Parliament should not be used to control 
the Irish legislative assembly. By the Conservatives, 
the consideration of social questions of pressing im- 
portance was held to have been already unfairly de- 
layed by Ireland, while the danger of attempting to 
place the Protestants of Ulster, and the loj^alists of 
Ireland generally, under an Irish Parliament, were 
especially insisted upon. 

The General Election resulted in the return of 274 
Gladstone Liberals and Labour Candidates, 72 Anti- 
Parnellites, and 9 Parnellites, a total of 355 members 



412 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

in favour of Home Kule; 269 Conservatives, and 46 
Liberal Unionists, or 315 members pledged to resist 
Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy. In England as distinct 
from other parts of the United Kingdom only 196 
Gladstonians were elected, as compared with 268 Con- 
servatives and Unionists; so that the predominant 
member of the partnership of the three Kingdoms 
had declared as emphatically as ever against Home 
Rule. Of the members returned for Great Britain, 
as distinct from Ireland, there was a majority of 16 
in favour of the maintenance of the Union. The 
balance of power rested absolutely in the hands of the 
Irish ]^ationalists, and Mr. Gladstone was placed in 
the position he had solemnly declared, in 1885, to be 
one of great danger. On that occasion he had stated 
that though he believed the Liberal party to be hon- 
ourable, patriotic, and trustworthy, it would not be 
safe for it, if dependent upon the Irish vote, '^to enter 
on the consideration of a measure in respect of which, 
at the first step of its progress, it \TOuld be in the 
power of a party coming from Ireland to say, ^Unless 
you do this and unless you do that, we will turn you 
out to-morrow.' That would be a vital danger to 
the country and the empire." But these considera- 
tions no longer weighed with the leader of the Home 
Rulers. Mr. Gladstone hastened to enter upon the 
course he had condemned seven years before. On 
the meeting of Parliament in August, 1892, a vote of 
want of confidence in the Government was proposed 
by Mr. Asquith and carried by a majority of forty. 
The Conservatives resigned, and Mr. Gladstone 
formed his fourth administration. In its composi- 
tion it did not differ as much as had been expected 
from its predecessor. Among the new men given 
office were Mr. Asquith, who became Home Secre- 



WRECK OF LIBERAL PARTY. 413 

taiy, Mr. Acland, Vice-President of the Council, — 
the title under which the Minister of Education con- 
tinued to be disguised, — Mr. Arnold Morley, Post- 
master-General, and Mr. H. H. Fowler, President of 
the Local Government Board. Mr. Morley was made 
Chief Secretary for Ireland, Sir William Harcourt, 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord Rosebery, 
Foreign Secretary. 

Mr. Gladstone introduced his second Home Rule 
Bill on the 13th of February, 1893. It was not re- 
ceived with more favour than the former measure. 
It gave to Ireland a separate legislature, but instead 
of entirely excluding, reduced the Irish representa- 
tion in the Imperial Parliament from 103 to 80 mem- 
bers. The Bill was one of the most complex ever 
presented to Parliament. It was resisted chiefly on 
the grounds that the eighty members to be returned 
by Ireland would be masters of the House of Com- 
mons, and umpires on British affairs, which they 
would handle for Irish purposes; that the financial 
scheme was impracticable; that there was no ade- 
quate guarantee of Imperial supremacy; that the 
interests of the minority in Ireland were left un- 
protected; that the land question was not settled; 
and that the ]^ationalists were left free to carry out 
doctrines with regard to the land, property, and gov- 
ernment, which were wholly inconsistent with any 
government whatever. Practically the whole ses- 
sion was devoted to the consideration of the Bill. 
The Government repeatedly changed front upon 
clauses of vital importance, and were not unfairly 
accused of roaming about from side to side, vdthout 
any definite convictions. Every revolt on the part 
of the Irish members was followed by surrender. 
Many of the changes Mr. Gladstone accepted were in 



414 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

contradiction to other parts of the Bill and to all the 
principles of his political life. Mr. Chamberlain, 
whose attacks upon the measure were not less able 
than bitter, declared that the ^'British Empire was 
being sold by private treaty," and, referring to the 
retention of eighty Irish members in the House of 
Commons, said, the issue was whether the interests 
of Great Britain were "to be controlled by delegates 
from Ireland nominated by priests, elected by illiter- 
ates, and subsidised by the enemies of our country." 
Many deplorable scenes took place in the House. 
Party passion ran even higher than in 1886, and the 
final separation of Mr. Chamberlain and the leading 
Liberal Unionists from their former colleagues was 
completed. The second and third readings of the 
Bill were carried by majorities of 43 and 41, and 
early in September the measure was sent to the House 
of Lords, where it Avas thrown out by 419 votes to 41, 
on the motion of the Duke of Devonshire, who, while 
Lord Ilartington, had been one of Mr. Gladstone's 
closest friends. The majority was the largest ever 
recorded in the history of Parliament. Events proved 
that in this instance at least the irresponsible Cham- 
ber reflected the feeling of the country more accurate- 
ly than the House of Representatives, l^o agitation 
followed the action of the House of Lords, not a word 
of protest was raised against their decision. 

Parliament adjourned till ]N^ovember, when its sit- 
tings were resumed, but only a languid interest was 
taken in its proceedings. It appeared as though the 
longer the two Houses sat, the less useful legislation 
it was possible for the Government to accomplish. 
The session which began in January, 1893, was pro- 
longed till March 5th, 1894. Of the many measures 
introduced not one of importance was added to the 



WRECK OF LIBERAL PARTY. 415 

Statute Book. Owing to their determination to en- 
force the principle of compulsion, the Bill for re- 
stricting the hours of labour in mines, and the Em- 
ployers Liability Bill, had to be abandoned. Even 
the Parish Councils Bill, which completed the system 
of local self-government in England begun by the 
establishment of County Councils, was only carried 
with difficulty. In spite of the unrivalled skill and 
experience of Mr. Gladstone as a leader, the Govern- 
ment seemed unable to avoid exasperating its friends 
as well as its foes. The futile labours of the Ministry 
were not inaptly compared to the punishment of pris- 
oners who have to work a crank, knowing well that 
nothing will come of their labours. 

With the close of this melancholy and unprofitable 
session Mr. Gladstone retired from the leadership of 
his party, and was succeeded by Lord Rosebery. The 
event will always be a memorable one in political 
history. In an eloquent tribute to the work of the 
veteran Liberal leader. Lord Salisbury spoke of Mr. 
Gladstone's as "the most brilliant intellect that has 
been placed at the service of the State since parlia- 
mentary government began." Everyone, said Lord 
Rosebery, can appreciate "the greatness of Mr. Glad- 
stone's character and attainments, but there is one 
aspect of his career which makes his retirement espe- 
cially pathetic and interesting, — I mean the long 
reach over which his recollection passes. He heard 
the guns saluting the battle of Waterloo, he heard 
some of Mr. Canning's greatest speeches, he heard 
the Reform debate in 1831 in this House, and Lord 
Brougham's memorable speech. He was, over half 
a century ago, the right-hand man of Sir Robert 
Peel's famous Government; and when to this coat- 
ing of history he acquired so long ago, is added his 



416 POLITICAL PKOGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

own transcendent personality, one cannot help being 
reminded of some noble river that has gathered its 
colours from the various soils through which it has 
passed, but has preserved its identity unimpaired, and 
gathered itself into one splendid volume before it 
rushes into the sea." 

Parliament reassembled for the new session on 
March 12th, 1894. Lord Bosebery declared that the 
party, of which he was now the leader, occupied the 
same position as before. There had been no change 
of measures, and he and his colleagues remained 
pledged to the policy laid down by Mr. Gladstone in 
the previous year. But with a change of leader the 
capacity of the Government for accomplishing useful 
work was not extended. During the remainder of 
this year many measures were proposed but not one 
of importance was carried. The eight-hours' day was 
introduced into the Royal dockyards and arsenals, and 
a regulation was made requiring Government con- 
tractors to pay their men the union rate of wages. 
Nearly the whole session was occupied by the con- 
sideration of Sir William Harcourt's Budget, which, 
for the first time, adopted the democratic principle 
of graduated taxation. While refusing to apply this 
principle to the income tax on the ground of the diffi- 
culty and uncertainty of its assessment and collection. 
Sir W. Harcourt appeased the demands of the Radi- 
cals by devising a drastic scheme of graduated death 
duties. He laid it down as a principle that a man's 
title to his property ceases with his death. The 
property, whatever might be its form, could only 
pass to the heirs or assigns by a grant from the State, 
and before making a fresh grant the State had an 
anterior title to what it might consider its share over 
any claimants by descent or by testament* The 



WRECK OF LIBERAL PARTY. 417 

numerous probate and estate duties, presenting "an 
extraordinary specimen of tessellated legislation/' 
which had grown up by piecemeal, were consolidated 
into one duty called the Estate Duty, and fused also 
the legacy and succession duties, placing both real 
and personal property, both settled and unsettled 
property on the same footing. In all cases the Duty 
is levied on the corpus, or capital value of the prop- 
erty devolving at death. The scale by which the 
duties were graduated was a drastic one, and inflicted 
much greater hardship upon persons of moderate 
means than upon the rich. Only estates of a capital 
value of under £500 were allowed to escape by the 
payment of a duty of one per cent. Estates between 
£500 and £1,000 pay two per cent; from £1,000 to 
£10,000 three per cent; and so on up to eight per 
cent on estates of over a million. 

Early in the session of 1895 it became evident that 
the Government was falling to pieces. The discord- 
ant elements of which it was composed had become 
irreconcilable. ISTothing short of the personality of 
Mr. Gladstone could hold together such conflicting 
forces. The crisis came unexpectedly. A motion 
declaring that an insufiicient amount of cordite and 
other small arms ammunition had been stored, was 
carried on June 21st by a majority of seven, and the 
Ministry collapsed. Lord Salisbury took office, and 
Mr. Chamberlain, following the example of the Duke 
of Devonshire, joined the new Government, and was 
made Secretary for the Colonies. The following 
month Parliament was dissolved. If the result of 
the previous general election left a doubt as to 
whether the nation approved of Home Rule, it was 
removed by the verdict now recorded at the polls. 
At former elections large numbers of voters had sup- 
27 



418 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

poi-ted Mr. Gladstone against tlieir own convictions. 
The veteran leader inspired a confidence and trust 
never extended to any other British statesman. That 
great influence had now been removed, and the 
I'esult was not less a surprise to the friends than to 
the opponents of Home Rule. The Unionists were 
returned with the overwhelming majority of 152. 
In the new Parliament there were 340 Conserva- 
tives, 71 Lil>eral Unionists, ITT Liberals who sui> 
ported Home Rule, TO Anti-Parnellitcs, and 12 Par- 
nellites, or -111 Unionists against 259 Home Rulers. 
Since 1832, when the Liberals, after the passing of 
the first Reform Bill, were returned by a majority of 
370, no such defeat had been suffered by either party. 
In the fourteen general elections held between 1835 
and 1892, the successful party had only on four occa- 
sions obtained a majority of more than a hundred 
over its opponents. 

The fact that more than half the members of the 
new House of Commons were Conservatives, paved 
the way for a fusion with the Liberal Unionists, who 
during the previous nine years had extended a gener- 
ous and patriotic support to these nominal allies. 
With their former colleagues, the Radicals under 
Mr. Chamberlain, and the Whigs under the Duke of 
Devonshire, had long ceased to be in sympathy. The 
old party names had lost their meaning. To very 
many Liberals, the Xewcastle programme of Mr. 
^lorley appeared mischievous, and in conflict with 
the essential principles of liberalism. Home Rule 
was still its chief plank, and was associated with de- 
mands for the annihilation of the House of Lords, 
the disestablishment of the Church, the compulsory 
restriction of the hours of all labour, and the enforce- 
ment of a hard and fast scheme of liabilitv of em- 



WRECK OF LIBERAL PARTY. 419 

plojers for accidents to their workmen, which would 
destroy the many excellent and powerful voluntary 
organisations which exist in centres of industry. 
In attempting to carry these and other changes, the 
new Liberals had appealed to the passions, the pre- 
judices, the worst instincts of the masses. But the 
appeal had been made in vain. The great Liberal 
party had abandoned their principles of righteousness 
and justice, and had deservedly been cut off ^/even in 
the blossom of their sins.'' Time has as yet failed 
to retrieve the disaster. The close of the century 
unfortunately sees the second great party in the State 
divided, and demoralised, and without a leader to 
take the place of Mr. Gladstone. 

In 1895, the ill-treatment and massacre of the 
Christian population in Turkey threatened to re-open 
the Eastern question. Many horrible outrages oc- 
curred in Armenia, for the good government of 
which England had pledged herself under the Con- 
vention of 1878. To the united representations of 
Great Britain, France, and Russia, the Sultan turned 
a deaf ear. At a meeting held at Chester under the 
presidency of the Duke of Westminster, Mr. Glad- 
stone once more denounced the iniquity of Turkish 
rule, ^^the worst on the face of the earth," in a speech 
full of fire and eloquence. But neither the force 
of public opinion nor the efforts of Lord Salisbury led 
to any practical results. And during the following 
vear a terrible massacre of Armenians in Constanti- 
nople, and also in the Anatolian provinces, roused 
public indignation in England to a high pitch. It 
was computed that in the streets of Constantinople 
alone, from 5,000 to 7,000 unoffending persons were 
killed. In a letter written early in September, Mr. 
Gladstone gave expression to the popular sentiment. 



4-20 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Indignation meetings were held in London and the 
provinces. Mr. Gladstone again lifted up his voice 
on behalf of oppressed humanity. On the 24th of 
September, although in his 87th year, he attended a 
non-party meeting at Liverpool, and spoke with re- 
markable vigour. While he thought ministers had 
acted rightly in seeking to maintain the Concert of 
Europe; he urged the Government to take every step 
that was possible, to put an end to a terrible evil. 
Under the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1878 we had 
the right to coerce the Porte; and come what might, 
we should extricate ourselves from an ambiguous 
position, and ref i>se to stand neutral in the face of the 
most terrible and the most monstrous series of pro- 
ceedings that had ever been recorded in the dismal 
and deplorable history of human crime. In an 
article in the Nineteenth Century, Mr. Gladstone 
urged that we had bound ourselves in the face of the 
world to secure good government for Armenia and 
for Asiatic Turkey; and if we failed to fulfil our 
solemn pledges the old word "honour'' should be 
effaced from our dictionaries and dropped from our 
language. 

With its large and homogeneous majority the Gov- 
ernment has been able to accomplish many notable 
reforms. An Irish Land Bill introduced by Mr. 
Gerald Balfour in 1896, was eventually carried in a 
much altered form. The aim of the measure is to 
promote the more rapid and effective working of the 
Irish Land Purchase Acts of 1885 and 1891, and 
thus to extinguish the dual ownership created by 
Mr. Gladstone's legislation. If the Act does not 
reduce agricultural rents to the prairie value desired 
by Mr. Parnell, it carries on the process of confisca- 
ting the rights and property of the ill-fated Irish land- 



WRECK OF LIBERAL PARTY. 421 

lord with a success that must be gratifying to the 
enemies of the "English garrison." In 1897, meas- 
ures were passed extending much more generous as- 
sistance to voluntary schools, and to the necessitous 
Board Schools of rural districts and poor localities. 

The Employers' Liability Act of 1897, for which 
Mr. Chamberlain was chiefly responsible, is one of 
the most important measures passed during the cen- 
tury. It introduced a new principle, which now ac- 
cepted as just and proper, would only a few years 
before have been repudiated by both parties. The 
contention of the Government was that an employer 
should consider compensation to workmen for acci- 
dental injury to be as much a charge upon his busi- 
ness as the outlay for the repair of machinery. In- 
stead of imposing the burden for compensation upon 
the community as a whole, the Act throws it upon 
the particular industry, the pursuit of which occa- 
sions the accident. Ultimately the entire charge, it 
is believed, will become an addition to the cost of 
production, and will thus be shared by employers, 
workmen, and consumers. If that prove to be the 
case, British industries will, of course, to a small, but 
not it is hoped a material extent, be handicapped in 
competition with those of foreign countries, where the 
State has not interfered in a similar manner. But 
in the first instance the compensation is imposed upon 
the employer, who is able to secure ample protection 
at a relatively small cost by means of insurance. 
Workmen disabled through accident receive half 
their wages during the period of disablement. When 
an accident causes death, the representative of the 
worker is entitled to recover from the employer three 
years' wages, or £150, which ever is the larger, so long 



422 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

as the total does not exceed £300. Contracting out 
of the Act is permitted when the Registrar-General 
of Friendly Societies certifies that the advantages to 
the men are not less than those secured by the law. 
In settling claims for compensation, both employer 
and workman are relieved of all expense. If the 
amount cannot be agreed upon between them it is 
settled by arbitration, or in the last resort, by the 
County Court Judge, the cost being borne by the 
State. The workman is not deprived of any right he 
may possess under the common law to recover dam- 
ages caused by the wilful and wrongful act of an 
employer, or his agent, but compensation cannot be 
chiimed both under the common law and the Em- 
ployers' Liability Act. At present the Act is con- 
fined to the chief trades in which workmen are ex- 
posed to accidents ; but its provisions will probably be 
extended at an early date to all industries. The 
most important exceptions are merchant-shipping 
and agriculture. Though the construction of many 
of its clauses has caused confusion and a large 
amount of litigation in the higher courts, the Act 
unquestionably has justified Mr. Chamberlain's hopes, 
and has conferred a great and an almost unexampled 
boon upon the working classes. 

By the death of Mr. Gladstone on May 19th, 1898, 
the greatest figure of the century in political life was 
removed. The event deeply moved not only the 
British nation but the civilised world, and the forti- 
tude and resignation with -which he bore his latter 
months of unspeakable pain and distress, heightened 
the veneration which all men felt for one who was 
not of an age but for all time. His funeral in West- 
minster Abbey was a solemn and impressive service, 



WRECK OF LIBERAL PARTY. 423 

which was attended by the members of both Houses 
of Parliament, and representatives of every section of 
the nation. 

An Act passed in 1898, extended to Ireland, with 
certain modifications, the same system of local self- 
government that had previously been granted to Eng- 
land and Scotland. In its main features the measure 
was the same as that introduced into the House of 
Commons by Mr. Balfour in 1892. Before the pass- 
ing of this Act there was practically no system of 
free local self-government in Ireland. Counties 
were ruled by grand juries, the members of which 
were nominated by the High Sheriff, mostly from 
among the larger landowners. It was a thoroughly 
antiquated feudal system, even more out of harmony 
with the spirit of the age, than the administrative 
Quarter Sessions which had been swept away in Eng- 
land. The new Act created throughout Ireland 
County Councils, Urban District Councils, Rural 
District Councils, and Boards of Guardians, as the 
various local authorities, all of which are elected by 
ballot every three years on the Parliamentary fran- 
chise, extended so as to include peers and women. 
The fiscal and administrative duties of the grand 
juries are transferred to the County Councils, but 
not their powers connected with the administration 
of the criminal law. But a provision handing over 
the duty of granting compensation for injuries to the 
County Courts, removed serious opposition to the 
grand jury system being allowed to continue. 
The work of the baronial authorities are trans- 
ferred to the District Councils. Aldermen and ex 
officio members, and ministers of religion, have no 
place in the new bodies ; and the poor law system 
administered by the Boards of Guardians is much 



424 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

modified by the abolition of all official members. 
Restrictions are provided to prevent the elective 
bodies imposing undue burdens upon the landlords, 
and generous contributions from the Imperial Treas- 
ury are made in relief of local rates. It is significant 
that the Irish Local Government Act was carried 
without bitter recrimination, being viewed with 
favour by the ^Nationalists and nearly all members 
of the House of Commons. By passing the measure 
the Unionists fulfilled their pledges, and have prob- 
ably placed Home Rule in the old sense of the term, 
outside the range of practical politics for ever. 

Several other measures of importance were passed 
in 1S98. The Benefices Bill removed some serious 
abuses in the system of Church patronage. It put 
an end to the sale of next presentations, and greatly 
restricted the conditions under which advowsons can 
be sold. The regulations against simony were ren- 
dered much more stringent. Imperial penny postage 
was established between the United Kingdom, 
Canada, J^ewfoundland, the Cape of Good Hope, 
Natal, and other parts of the Empire, and in time 
will be arranged with all British Colonies. Provi- 
sions were made for the creation of a Board of Edu- 
cation with a Minister as its chief, which will take 
charge of elementary and secondary education, ab- 
sorb the Science and Art Department, and abolish the 
jealousies, over-lapping, and competition that existed 
between Government departments. Technical Educa- 
tion Authorities, and School Boards. Under the new 
Board it is hoped that the confusion which has 
hitherto existed in Elementary Education, the want 
or any organised system of Secondary Education, and 
the many other causes which have largely paralysed 
the efforts to place National Education upon a broad 



WRECK OF LIBERAL PARTY. 425 

and satisfactory basis will be removed. The Mar- 
riage Act of 1898 removed a grievance of long stand- 
ing. It enables marriages to be solemnised in Non- 
conformist places of worship without the attendance 
of the official registrar, who had never been required 
to be present at such services held in the Established 
Church. By the Criminal Evidence Act every person 
charged with an offence, and the wife or husband, 
as the case may be, of the person so charged, is per- 
mitted to give evidence for the defence, — an im- 
portant reform in legal procedure which had long 
been urged by many eminent jurists. 

The numerous bills passed in 1899 included meas- 
ures creating a Department of Agriculture and other 
industries and of Technical Instruction in Ireland ; 
raising the age at which children may be withdrawn 
from elementary schools, from eleven to twelve; 
making better provision for local government in the 
administrative county of London, by the division of 
the county (exclusive of the ancient City of London) 
into metropolitan boroughs, each with a municipal 
council ; extending further protection to the children 
of pauper or vicious parents; rendering the pro- 
vision of seats for all female shop assistants 
compulsory; increasing the stringency of the Acts 
against the adulteration of food and drugs ; and fac- 
ilitating the acquisition of small houses by the poor- 
er classes by means of loans from local authorities. 
During the sessions of 1898 and 1899 an unusually 
large number of useful measures, calculated to 
promote the moral, intellectual, and material im- 
provement of the people, were added to the Statute 
Book. 



426 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 



CIIAPTEK XXI. 

DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 

There is nothing of deeper significance, nothing 
more memorable in the history of the nineteenth 
century, than the rise and development of democracy. 
Here, at least, history has not repeated itself. We 
may search the records of former ages in vain for 
any parallel to modern democracy. It is of itself 
a thing apart. It has nothing in common with the 
ancient democracies, which at best were little more 
than oligarchies. Under them the toiling masses 
were slaves, and had no share of political power. 
Mediaeval democracies were in nearly every instance 
concerned with the government of the city and not 
of the State, and though many privileges had been 
extended to the people, they were almost as far off as 
ever from the enjoyment of the power which the 
nineteenth century has placed in their hands. 
Xone the less, the vast change that has occurred is 
the result not of any sudden transformation, but of a 
gradual process of development which has been car- 
ried on for centuries, and might be traced step by 
step through history. 

In only a limited sense can modern democracy be 
said to have had its origin in the French Revolution. 
If that tremendous eruption of the repressed forces 
of humanity had never taken place, the dawn of 
liberty might have been delayed, — it could not have 
been long deferred. Though events in France at the 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 427 

end of the eighteenth century profoundly stirred 
the feelings of the British people, the most valuable 
lessons taught them by the Revolution were of a 
negative and not a positive character. The ideals 
which inspired the French were lost sight of in the 
gloom of the excesses and extravagances of those 
stormy times. To the majority of the English peo- 
ple, events in France were only a terrible warning 
that though a revolution may remove abuses, it can- 
not prevent others springing up in their place. In 
the case of human society, as with the individual, 
there is no effectual means of instantaneous conver- 
sion. If any enduring change is to be wrought it 
must be a gradual one. The great moral, social, and 
material gains which have been achieved by the 
growth of democracy under the British flag, are the 
result of time, of the patient but ceaseless efforts of 
a people working out their destiny upon the lines of 
constitutional progress. 

The tendency of British democracy is constructive, 
not destructive. Timid minds may be alarmed be- 
cause the old order changes, giving place to new, but 
unless the experience of the century is to be entirely 
falsified by future events, there is no need to fear a 
lack of conservative instinct, of reverence for every- 
thing that deserves veneration, among the mass of the 
British people. Anarchism, with its denial of all 
government, and its pandemonium of license, which 
would permit every man to be a law unto himself, 
has not touched them. They have no sympathy with 
Socialism, which would reduce everything to chaos 
in order to recreate a new and regenerate world, in 
which everyone would have enough and none too 
much, the amount being strictly regulated in accor- 



428 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

dance with the ideas of writers who wish to make all 
mankind submit to the ordeal of the procrustean bed. 

The cry that the tendency of legislation is in the 
direction of socialism is founded upon a confusion of 
terms. For many years the word socialism has 
ceased to convey any definite idea. It is used in the 
most conflicting senses. The fundamental principle 
which underlies the writings of Lassalle, Marx, and 
other dangerous political guides, is that "the present 
system of industry, which is carried on by private 
competing capital, served by competitive wage-labour, 
must be superseded by a system of free associated 
workers, utilising a collective capital with a view to 
an equitable system of distribution. On this theory 
private capital will be abolished, and rent, and inter- 
est will cease." That is the dream of the Socialist, 
who makes the ideal his starting point, and not, what 
it ought to be, the goal of his action. He wants to 
destroy, in order that he may reconstruct the world 
in accordance with his preconceived ideas. He takes 
no account of the limitations and inherent inequalities 
of humanity; and he conveniently ignores the prin- 
ciples which determine social development. 

Political progress has brought with it, or, more 
correctly speaking, has resulted from a marvellous 
change in ideas upon almost every question affecting 
the people. To describe the essential principles upon 
which much of the legislation of late years has pro- 
ceeded, a new name is needed. The old terms 
Liberalism and Conservatism have lost their signifi- 
cance, and even if they had not, would be as unsuit- 
able as Whig and Tory. In endeavouring to find an 
appropriate name for the new principles underlying 
recent legislation, we are frequently driven to use 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 429 

the term socialism. But from socialism, in the sense 
just defined, British legislation is cut off by a whole 
diameter. There has been no attempt made by Par- 
liament to vest the instruments of production in the 
State, so that it may administer them equally for 
the benefit of all its members. The acquisition of 
tramways, water, gas and electric lighting works, by 
municipalities, is not due to the acceptance of the 
essential principles of socialism. It would be more 
correct to affirm that the forces which promote these 
important movements are opposed to socialism. 
The object is not to remove incentives to 
individual effort, not to impose restrictions upon the 
ambition which always has been, and always will 
be, the mainspring of human endeavour, but by im- 
proving the conditions under which the mass of the 
people exist, to enlarge the opportunities of each 
citizen to fight the battle of life successfully, and 
carve out for himself the career for which he is best 
fitted by ability and temperament. Competition is 
not being removed, but the conditions under which 
competition takes place are being equalised. The 
profits from industries owned and managed by mu- 
nicipalities are not handed over to the workers, who 
according to the socialists are entitled to the whole 
product of their labour. On the contrary, the profits 
are expended in reducing the rates, and in making 
public improvements, which are enjoyed by all, and 
from which rich and poor derive benefit. 

The whole tendency of democracy is not only to 
give the widest possible liberty to each citizen to 
shape his own career, but to encourage and aid him 
to become the owner, in whole or in part, of the 
house he lives in, of the land he tills, of the mine, the 
factory, and the workshop where he is employed. 



4-30 rOLITICAL PRCX5JRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Instead of an attempt to replace the individual capi- 
talist by the State, the power of the State is every 
year being more largely used to multiply the small 
capitalist, who under increasingly favourable condi- 
tions is left free to work out his own salvation, and 
to become rich if he can. British democracy is, there- 
fore, opposed to the false ideal of reducing everyone 
to an equality, and preventing one individual becom- 
ing wealthier than another. It is developing, not 
on the principles urged by Lassalle, and Marx, but 
upon the lines foreseen by De Tocqueville, whose 
definition of the difference between the aims of social- 
ism and democracy is as true to-day as it was in 1849. 
^'Democracy," he says, "extends the sphere of indi- 
vidual independence; socialism contracts it. Dem- 
ocracy gives every individual man his utmost value; 
socialism makes every man an agent, an instrument, 
a cipher. Democracy and socialism coincide only in 
the single word equality, but observe the difference: 
democracy desires equality in liberty; socialism seeks 
equality in compulsion and servitude." 

Under the guise of equality socialism seeks to inflict 
injustice. It is not content, like democracy, to use 
the powers of the State for the solution of the wants 
of the people, and to achieve the greatest happiness 
of the greatest number. A practical application of 
the theories of Lassalle and Marx would not elevate 
humanity to a higher plane, but would drag man- 
kind do^vn to a lower level, where the industrious 
would never be allowed to rise above the indolent, 
where the capable man would be held in no more 
value than the incompetent, where the creative artist 
and the scientific investigator, would have no induce- 
ment to extend the bounds of human knowledge, that 
was not shared by the hewers of wood and drawers 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 431 

of water, where the skilled artisan and the intelligent 
mechanic would be placed on the same footing with 
the unskilled labourer and the ignorant navvy. 

To a nation which had lost its vigour, and was 
hastening to decay, the chilling creed of the socialist, 
founded on the false assumption that mankind can 
not only be reduced to the dead level of mediocrity, 
but can be kept there, might in the last stages of its 
decrepitude, prove alluring. But it has no attrac- 
tion for a people whose vigour is unimpaired, whose 
vitality is undiminished, whose aspirations have not 
been turned into dead sea fruit. Socialism is repug- 
nant to the feelings of the British people, in conflict 
with their instincts, and opposed to all the principles 
for which they have so long and patiently struggled. 
Had socialism obtained in England in the past, the 
Anglo-Saxon race would never have achieved its 
world-wide influence. England, as Mr. John Rae 
justly argues, owes "her whole industrial greatness, 
her manufactures, her banks, her shipping, her rail- 
ways, to some extent her Colonial possessions, to the 
unassisted energy of her private citizens.'' A peo- 
ple reared in the great principles of freedom will 
never exchange their liberty as individuals for the 
iron rule of a socialistic despotism. 

The dominant principle of recent democratic legis- 
lation is that justice and humanity ought to govern 
in economic affairs, as they have always been sup- 
posed to govern in the other affairs of life. In its 
application, this remarkable principle has not yet 
reached its full development. To what results it 
may ultimately lead, who can say? That it will 
bring about even more important changes in the exist- 
ing state of society than we have yet witnessed, there 
appears no reason to doubt. Though the logical out- 



432 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

come of tlie labours of enlightened statesmen of both 
parties during the past century, the new doctrine, in 
its practical working, conflicts not less with the prin- 
ciples of the old Liberalism than with those of Con- 
servatism. Little more than a generation ago, free- 
dom of contract, the rights of property, the liberty 
of the individual, were among the essential articles 
of the Liberal faith. But it is now a matter of daily 
occurrence for Parliament to restrict freedom of con- 
^ tract, interfere with the rights of property, restrain 
the liberty of the individual, where the welfare of any 
considerable section of the community is concerned. 

In doing this the State has made no new departure. 
It has merely changed its point of view. Instead 
of legislating for the few, it has adopted the humane 
and just view that the object of the State should be 
to promote the welfare of the many. It has not 
ceased to protect the classes, but it no longer does 
so at the expense of the masses. Having declared 
against the exploitation of man by man by means of 
slavery and serfdom ; the State was to awaken in the 
nineteenth century to the necessity of further pro- 
tecting the weak, and putting restraints upon the 
exploitation of man, the wage-earner, by man the 
capitalist, whose well-being had hitherto been its 
chief solicitude. The changed conditions of society 
and industry had brought with them evils, which, if 
not as intolerable as those associated with forced 
labour, were of a magnitude that no civilised form of 
government, much less a Christian one, could long 
ignore. 

In 1349 the State fixed the wages of labourers in 
the interests of the ruling classes. This was super- 
seded during the reign of Elizabeth by a statute im- 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 433 

posing an apprenticeship of seven years, and em- 
powering the Justices in Quarter Sessions to ^x the 
rate of wages both in husbandry and handicraft. 
In process of time the law was largely superseded by 
local customs. These were not always in favour of 
the labourers, who repeatedly complained at the be- 
ginning of the present century that they could not 
get their wages revised. The great industrial revo- 
lution, which began in the eighteenth century, had 
brought with it a corresponding change in the rela- 
tions between capital and labour. With the intro- 
duction of machinery and the establishment of fac- 
tories, there arose a pressing need for some system 
which would supply the protection against oppression 
afforded workmen by the Trade Guilds, which had 
ceased to exercise any influence. Trade unionism 
sprang up, and the labourers attempted to secure 
their demands by association. But the State im- 
mediately interfered, and, for the benefit of em- 
ployers, passed the Combination Acts of 1799 and 
1800. 

These laws, which rendered combination penal, 
pressed with great hardship upon the labouring 
classes. While they were strictly enforced against 
workmen, employers were frequently allowed to com- 
bine for their mutual benefit. The Statute of Eliza- 
beth was repealed in 1814, but it was not till 1824 
that a Parliamentary Committee was appointed to 
inquire into the working of the Combination Acts. 
In their report, the Committee stated that the ad- 
ministration of the law had been one-sided, and that 
the restrictions against combination resulted in secret 
societies, distrust, irritation, and violence. In ac- 
cordance with the recommendations in the report, the 
Combination Acts were repealed; but owing to the 

2a 



434 rOLITICAL PROGRESS OP" THE CENTURY. 

occurrence of numeroiis strikes, repressive laws were 
re-enacted in 1825. Under the new law, workmen 
niigkt assemble to determine their own wages, but 
any agreement "affecting the wages or hours of work 
of persons not present at the meeting,'' all agree- 
ments for "controlling a master in the management 
of his business," for persuading persons to leave their 
employment, or not to work for any particular master 
or company, were made illegal conspiracies. "In 
fact, there was scarcely an act performed by any 
workman, as the member of a trade union, which 
was not an act of Conspiracy and a misdemeanour." 
But in spite of these and other repressive Acts, trade 
unionism continued to grow. A Royal Commission, 
appointed in 1867, reported that the majority of the 
Unions had nothing illegal in their working, and 
advised the repeal of the severe laws of 1825, and 
subsequent years. The Trade Union Act passed in 
1871, during Mr. Gladstone's first administration, 
rendered the position of the Unions legal; and the 
last vestiges of the Combination Acts were swept 
away under Mr. Disraeli's Government in 1875. 

Legalised and protected by the State, placed on a 
footing of equality with other voluntary associations, 
granted protection for their funds and their property, 
Trades Unions have become a scarcely less important 
factor in politics than in industry. That these great 
labour organisations should make mistakes is inevit- 
able. But on the whole, their influence has been a 
beneficial one. They sprang up originally, to meet 
the need of protecting the weak against the strong, 
and though the scope of their operations has been 
greatly extended, their chief objects are still to raise 
and maintain wages at the highest possible level, to 
reduce the hours of labour, regulate over-time, and 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 435 

piece-work, and to secure the toiler against the 
caprice and oppression of the employer. At first 
these and other objects were secured by strikes and 
lock-outs. But with the growth of the Unions, the 
increase in the resources they command, and the 
great change that has taken place in public opinion, 
the influence of which becomes more potent as the 
years go by, the tendency is to resort less to force, 
and to replace strikes by boards of conciliation and 
arbitration. In some of the chief industries, notably 
in the coal, iron, and steel trades, wages are auto- 
matically regulated by sliding-scales, under which 
the remuneration of the workers rise or fall, as the 
prices received by. the capitalist advance or recede. 

There is another aspect of Trades Unions, which 
are very far from being merely organisations for 
enforcing what are regarded as the just claims of 
labour. Long before they were removed from under 
the ban of the law, the great industrial organisations 
extended to their members many of the benefits to be 
derived from co-operation. The poor were enabled 
to tide over times of distress ; the sick were suc- 
coured, the aged and infirm provided for, the vic- 
tims of accident and adversity were assisted, and 
provision made against many of the ills of life that 
especially fall to the lot of the poor. All this was 
done without the taint of pauperism, thus preserving 
the self-respect of the members and of their families. 
'Nor must the influence of Trades Unions be ignored 
in the promotion of temperance, and thrift, the teach- 
ing of self ^discipline, and the inculcation of that 
spirit of self-respect and manly independence, which 
are among the priceless possessions of a free people. 

Co-operation, which grew up side by side with 
trade unionism, has developed in Great Britain on 



4-36 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

the lines of distribution rather than of production. 
Over one-sixth of the population has its wants sup- 
plied in whole, or in part, by co-operation. Of the 
societies associated with the Co-operative Union the 
annual production exceeds five millions a year in 
value. But this is only an infinitesimal part of what 
is being accomplished by co-operation by less direct 
methods. Joint Stock Companies are often only co- 
operative societies under another name. Their ten- 
dency is entirely democratic. The results by which 
Avealth was formerly concentrated in the hands of 
the few, are being achieved by the union and multi- 
plication of small capitalists, under the title of Lim- 
ited Liability Companies, and the creation of schemes 
of profit-sharing, which secure to the workers a direct 
participation in the fruits of their industry. 

The triumph of Catholic Emancipation, and the 
passing of the Reform Bill of 1832, by which the bal- 
ance of power was transferred from the aristocracy 
to the middle classes, were speedily followed by a 
great change in the relations between the State and 
the people. Instead of regarding nearly every ques- 
tion from the standpoint of the capitalist. Parliament 
began to take a broader view, which was enlarged 
with each extension of the franchise. Interest was 
awakened in national education. It was no longer 
possible for the legislature to regard with apathy the 
ignorance in. which the mass of the people had been 
allowed to remain. Inquiry was stimulated, money 
was voted, and a E'ational Council was formed to 
regulate and extend public instruction. The wants 
and grievances of the labouring classes were investi- 
gated, and remedies proposed. Instead of endeav- 
ouring to regulate employment in the interests of the 
capitalist. Parliament now began to legislate, not 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 437 

against the privileged classes, but on behalf of the 
people. The dawn of a new era had come. In 
future, the State was to be the protector of the weak 
and oppressed. Its efforts were at first cautious and 
experimental. Interference with freedom of con- 
tract, restriction of the hours of labour, the regula- 
tion of the sanitary condition of factories and work- 
shops, were only made in the interests of little chil- 
dren and young girls. But the benefits of such legis- 
lation were so obvious that they were speedily ex- 
tended to women ; and then, step by step, to every 
class of adult worker. To-day the State employs an 
army of experts, to see that the laws passed to protect 
the toiling millions are obeyed. The worker is not 
only protected against the employer, he is in many 
instances protected against himself. Women and 
children are no longer free to slave an unlimited 
number of hours every day in their endeavour to 
secure the means of subsistence. 

Though Great Britain has not been in the van of 
progress in legislating on behalf of children, the 
aegis of the law is rapidly being extended over the 
child, with whose welfare the State is bound, both 
by justice and by the force of self-preservation, to 
concern itself. There is no attempt to interfere with 
parental rights ; the efforts to remove parental re- 
sponsibility are happily few. But among the great 
changes political progress has brought about, is the 
recognition of the fact that children have rights as 
well as adults, and that it is the duty of the State to 
enforce the observance of those rights. Every child 
is a subject of the King, and is therefore entitled to 
the protection of the law. Children may no longer 
be starved, neglected, and cruelly ill-treated, with 
impunity. They may not be denied the benefits of 



438 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

an education which will enable tliem to become use- 
ful citizens. Their capacity as wage-earners may 
no longer be turned to unlimited account by brutal, 
lazy, and criminal parents. But much still remains 
to be accomplished. In the task of protecting the 
helpless against the oppressor, the State under the 
pressure of a more enlightened public opinion will 
soon be forced to make the welfare of the child its 
especial care. Nothing less than a Department of 
State, with a Minister directly responsible to the 
representatives of the people for the life and well- 
being of every child, will satisfy the demands of 
reformers who are aware of the terrible abuses that 
still exist. But before this can be obtained the con- 
science of the people must be awakened. Parlia- 
ment Avill never devote its best energies to the solu- 
tion of the serious problems that exist, until the peo- 
ple are aroused. Children cannot by speeches plead 
on their own behalf; they have no votes which the 
politician is eager to obtain; they cannot organise 
themselves into unions to resist the wrongs too often 
inflicted upon them by their natural protectors. But 
the cry of thousands of helpless little children goes 
up daily to Heaven, and the anguish and suffering of 
which they are the victims, will one day come home 
to the democracy, and call forth an irresistible de- 
mand for redress. 

The results achieved by political progress during 
the century amount to little less than a revolution. 
Religious disabilities have been removed," and liberty 
of conscience secured. Equality before the law has 
been established in theory, though in practice there 
is still room for improvement. Political power has 
been extended to the mass of the people. Free edu- 
cation has been provided at the expense of the State. 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 439 

The largest possible amount of freedom has been 
granted to each individual citizen. While the 
bounds of liberty have been enlarged, the abuses 
arising from license have been restricted. The old 
doctrines of laissez-faire, and legislative non-interven- 
tion, have been discarded. Slowly, but steadily, the 
State has extended its control over every branch of 
industry with the objects of checking the abuse of 
power, of lessening the evils of competitive labour, 
of securing the safety and preserving the health of 
the w^orker, of protecting the weaker classes in what 
Adam Smith calls "an undeformed and unmutilated 
manhood." 

Intervention by Government in all these matters 
was necessitated by the growth of society. The de- 
velopment of the vast and complex system of modern 
industry, and the increase and concentration of popu- 
lation, made it impossible for the State to stand 
aloof. But in legislating for the protection of the 
toiling millions, Parliament has violated no principle 
of British freedom. It has not even made the new 
and startling departure which some alarmists would 
have us believe. For centuries the State had never 
hesitated to interfere where intervention was deemed 
necessary in the interest of the nation. Its interven- 
tion had too often been in the interest of the ruling- 
classes. But that was a natural and inevitable result 
as long as political power was concentrated in the 
hands of the aristocracy. It was only when the 
power of the State began to be exerted for the pro- 
tection of large sections of the nation, for limiting 
the rights and enforcing the responsibilities of prop- 
erty, that an outcry was raised. Mr. Herbert 
Spencer declared that British freedom was lost, and 
warned us to prepare for " the coming slavery." But 



440 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

though the State has continued to pursue its policy of 
interference with undiminished vigour, there still ap- 
pears to be an abundance of British freedom, and 
if the new conditions under which we live are those 
of "slavery," that institution has been greatly tra- 
duced in the past. Which is the more intolerable 
''slavery/' the state of things that prevailed under 
the laws which made combination penal, or that 
which has resulted from the legalization of trades 
unions? The condition of the men, women, and 
children, who worked in mines, factories, and work- 
shops without State protection, or of the toilers of 
to-day, who, under the provisions of the numerous 
Acts passed for their benefit, are by the power of 
the State safeguarded at every turn? The position 
of workmen formerly, whose families were left with- 
out pro^dsion when the bread-winners were disabled 
or killed by accident in following dangerous employ- 
ment, or, that of labourers who receive under the 
Employers' Liability Act half their wages during dis- 
ablement, and have their families partly provided for 
in the case of accidents that end fatally? We are 
far from ignoring the dangers connected with State 
interference. They are many, and the danger of the 
rights of the minority being extinguished by the will 
of the majority, is one that should never be lost sight 
of. But, up to the present, the tendency of British 
democracy has not been to set up universal State 
action in the place of individual liberty, or to deprive 
any class of its just rights and privileges. 

It is profoundly significant that during the last 
half century, Parliament has been guided more by 
ethical than by economic considerations. Justice 
and humanity, the obligations of our higher nature, 
the duty of a Christian State to the people, have been 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 44I 

the tremendous motive power which has forced 
through Parliament act after act for protecting the 
people, ameliorating their condition, and supplying 
them with many means of mental, moral, and mater- 
ial improvement. The Factory Acts, the Education 
Acts, the Health and Dwelling Acts, the establish- 
ment of free libraries, free picture galleries, free 
parks, are reforms inspired by moral influences, 
rather than by considerations of political economy. 
It is the bringing of the great forces of moral and 
philanthropic feeling to bear upon the legislature, 
the appeal to the conscience as well as to the intel- 
lect of statesmen, that has resulted in the framing 
of so large a number of statutes for the benefit of the 
poorer classes of the community. 

Though we may deny that the British Parliament, 
in extending and establishing popular rights, has en- 
croached upon the principle of individual freedom, 
what were at one time regarded as the inalienable 
rights and privileges of property have been consider- 
ably curtailed. The movement will probably go 
much further. Those directly concerned naturally 
regard it as an infringement of their rights. But, 
if we except the Irish Land Acts, we doubt whether 
any measure passed by Parliament can be said to have 
trenched upon the just rights of the individual. 
The assertion made by partisans that the tendency 
of recent legislation is towards confiscation, is 
scarcely worthy of notice. If the people were polled 
upon the question to-morrow they would repudiate, 
almost unanimously, any wish to interfere with pri- 
vate property. They would do so, because being a 
people full of life and vigour, it is the hope, and the 
aim of each member of the community, to acquire 
property of his own. 



442 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

In the progress of civilisation, private property al- 
ways has been and, as far as we can see, always will 
be one of the most important factors. If its rights 
have been restricted, and are likely to be still further 
curtailed, it is not that the nation is opposed to pri- 
vate wealth, in any form, but because under the con- 
ditions resulting in a State wliich has slowly and 
peacefully emerged from feudalism into democracy, 
property in many instances enjoyed undue powers, 
and unfair advantages. Many of the reforms which 
were strenuously resisted at first, were finally carried 
without any opposition. The class affected had be- 
come more enlightened. Take, for example, the old 
law of land entail. Under its provisions, large quan- 
tities of land were rendered useless. The tenant for 
life did not work the land, he could find no tenant 
who would take it, and except under almost impos- 
sible conditions, he could not sell it. This anomalous 
state of things was caused by some more or less re- 
mote proprietor having seen fit to entail the property 
upon generations at the time unborn. When the old 
laAv was finally swept away by Lord Cairns' Act, and 
the living were emancipated from the tyranny of the 
dead, no one rejoiced more than the representatives 
of the class who had formerly resisted the reform. 
Another illustration may be found in the Agricul- 
tural Holdings Act, which secured to British tenants 
compensation for improvements. The measure was 
at first resisted on the plea that it interfered with 
the rights of the owner. This was true ; but it only 
took away from the landlord, property to which he 
had no moral right w^hatever. The share in the value 
of the soil conveyed from the landowner to the farmer, 
had been created by the tenant. It was the outcome 
of new and more scientific methods of agriculture. It 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 443 

called for the constitution of a new kind of property, 
the property of a tenant-farmer in his own unex- 
hausted improvements. The new law has worked 
admirably, but when the change was first proposed 
by Mr. Gladstone the usual cry of confiscation was 
raised by the class affected. 

Democratic legislation has struck not at property, 
but at injustice. The privileged classes had so long 
been accustomed to be protected by the State against 
all comers, that they were slow to realise that under 
the altered conditions each section of the community 
would have its rights and privileges secured to it. 
Apart from this side of the question, the State insists 
with growing severity that the responsibilities of 
property shall be conscientiously discharged. Where 
this is done, there is little danger of legislative inter- 
ference as between class and class. But in the rela- 
tions between itself and the capitalist, the State has 
adopted entirely new ideas regarding property. The 
most striking example of this is afforded by the grad: 
uated Death T)uties proposed by Sir William Har- 
court. The equity of taxing the wealthy more heav- 
ily than the poor has long been admitted. The ex- 
emption always permitted under the Income Tax was 
practically an admission of the principle. If there is 
any objection to the graduated Death Duties it is not 
that they bear too heavily upon the rich or too lightly 
upon the poor, but that they are framed so as to press 
with special severity upon the class which just escapes 
poverty and misses riches altogether. A graduated 
Income Tax will probably be adopted in the near 
future; and the State will continue, by many other 
methods, to promote the distribution of wealth. In- 
dividual liberty will only be restricted where it injuri- 
ously affects the rights and well-being of others. 



444 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Every man will be left free to amass a great fortune, 
but the difficulties to be overcome in doing so will 
steadily increase, while the possibilities of each indus- 
trious and capable citizen acquiring a moderate com- 
petency will be correspondingly enlarged. By en- 
abling every man to become a small capitalist, the 
causes of discontent are removed, the conservative 
instincts of the people strengthened, and the safety 
of society secured. Men will never become equal, 
mentally, physically, or financially. Great inequali- 
ties \vill remain; and life will continue to offer to the 
few, prizes which are beyond the reach of the many. 
But the inequalities will not be so great as in the past; 
the contrast between the conditions of life for the 
wealthy and for the poor will not be so glaring; for 
without entering upon a policy of injustice or con- 
fiscation, the State will use its vast powers to protect 
those who most need its assistance, and to secure to 
every citizen the essentials of life, and the means of 
moral, intellectual, and material improvement. 

Out of these great results of the political progress 
of the century, have sprung others, which promise 
to be among the most memorable in the world's his- 
tory. With the growth of democracy in Great 
Britain, has proceeded the development of democracy 
tliroughout the world wide possessions of the Crown. 
From the little island set in the silver sea, British 
''Parliamentary institutions have taken the wings 
of the morning and passed to the uttermost parts of 
the earth.'' At first each Colony was concerned in 
establishing itself; in setting its own house in order, 
that the inhabitants might enjoy the blessings of 
liberty and justice, which are associated with 
the presence of the British flag. With 
the accomplishment of that duty, new aspira- 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 445 

tions arose. Blood claimed union with blood. The 
loyalists throughout British ISTorth America were no 
longer content to remain split up in isolated com- 
munities. Across a vast continent Quebec clasped 
hands with British Columbia. The provinces were 
confederated, and the Dominion sprang into exist- 
ence. In this, as in many other things, Canada led 
the way. She was the first to realise the great idea 
of the confederation of self-governing democratic 
States. The example set in 1867 was destined to 
have a world ^vide influence. It quickened the pulse 
of national feeling in Australia, and awoke a desire 
for federal union among the British people of South 
Africa. But, in the latter country, the conditions 
were not favourable to the adoption of federation. 
A great change in the position of the different States 
was necessary, before the realisation of such high 
hopes could be effected; and the indiscreet action of 
the British Government in attempting to promote a 
union before the time was ripe, only led to misunder- 
standing and failure. 

But in Australia the idea took root, and began to 
grow. It received a great impulse in 1883 by the 
action of Queensland in attempting to annex the 
large island of Papua, or !N^ew Guinea. The Colonies 
awoke to the danger of any foreign power being per- 
mitted to acquire possessions in the Southern Pacific, 
and to the importance of federal union for the protec- 
tion of their own interests and those of the Empire. 
Though the Imperial Government were unable to 
sanction the action of Queensland, Lord Derby re- 
sponded to the feeling expressed by all the Australian 
Colonies, by extending British jurisdiction over the 
southern coast of ^ew Guinea, and asserting the 
pre-emptive claim of England to the island, by de- 



446 rOLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

daring that an attempt by any other country to 
make a settlement on the coast would not be viewed 
as a friendly act. This fell far short of Australian 
demands. A scheme was submitted to the Colonial 
Office for the annexation not only of Papua, but of 
the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and of a 
large number of little known islands in the neighbor- 
hood, and to north and north-east of Papua. Resolu- 
tions were passed by the Legislatures of the different 
Colonies concerned, calling upon the Imperial Gov- 
ernment to occupy all the South Sea islands, in order 
to prevent them from falling into the hands of other 
Powers. The demand was natural, but it was one 
much easier to make than to comply with; and the 
British Government urged that before the Mother 
Country took a step which might lead to grave con- 
sequences, the Austrialian Colonies should consoli- 
date themselves into a powerful political union, and 
show that they could take under their care, and bear 
their share of the cost of the occupation, administra- 
tion, and defence of the additional 300,000 square 
miles of territory which it was proposed should be 
added to the possessions of the Crown. These events 
led to the holding of an Intercolonial Conference in 
l^ovember, 1883, in order to discuss the policy of 
federation. It was decided that a Federal Council 
should be formed to deal with matters in which 
imited action might be desirable. But the Colonies 
were still far from unanimous as to the lines upon 
which federation should proceed. Each Colony 
viewed with jealousy any invasion of its legislative 
powers and independence. 'New South Wales and 
New Zealand desired to have as loose and elastic a 
form of federation as possible. The other Colonies 
were in favour of making the union binding and 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 44,7 

durable, and of entrusting the Federal Council with 
considerable powers. These divisions were not at- 
tended with happy results, and the Federal Council 
of Australasia as constituted by Act of the Imperial 
Parliament in 1885, only served to emphasize the 
necessity for a union founded on much sounder prin- 
ciples. 

In spite of the reiterated representations of all the 
Australian Colonies, Germany was permitted by the 
Imperial Government, in 1884, to occupy the north- 
ern part of 'New Guinea. That this action should 
have exasperated the Colonial authorities is not sur- 
prising. They were certainly justified in complain- 
ing that the Colonies were subject to an "unqualified" 
and an "antiquated autocracy'' in Imperial matters, 
which had sacrificed their interests without an effort, 
and had ignored the strong representations, which, for 
over eighteen months, the Colonial Governments had 
addressed to the Home Ministry. Here, as in every- 
thing else, the policy of the Liberal Ministry of 
1880-85 resulted in disaster and humiliation. But 
the indignation aroused by their conduct induced the 
Gladstonian Government to abandon their apathetic 
policy, and endeavour to save to Australia the islands 
that remained. The protectorate over the Southern 
portion of New Guinea was enlarged so as to take 
in the north shore of East Cape as well as the adja- 
cent islands, and the British flag was hoisted over the 
various islands of the Luisiade Archipelago, east of 
E^ew Guinea, over Woodland Island jto the north of 
these, and over the smaller Long and Rook Islands 
off the coast of the German Colony. 

Though the Australian Federal Council, from 
which New South Wales, South Australia, and N^ew 
Zealand held aloof, was unable to achieve very much 



448 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

in the way of practical results, it had a great effect 
in strengthening the national spirit. In 1890, rep- 
resentatives of the Colonies unanimously adopted an 
address to the Queen, declaring that the best inter- 
ests, and the present and future prosperity of the 
Australian Colonies would be promoted by an early 
union under the Crown, with a legislative and execu- 
tive government. In the following year, a national 
Australasian Convention, composed of delegates 
from each Colony, was held at Sydney, and a Federal 
Constitution was framed, and adopted by an unani- 
mous vote. By 26 votes to 13, the Convention de- 
cided that the name of the Confederation should be 
the Commonwealth of Australia. But, owing to 
various obstacles, and to the slowness of Parlia- 
mentary procedure, the cause of federation did not 
progress rapidly. At a Conference of the Premiers 
held at Ilobart, in January, 1895, it was decided to 
abandon the Commonwealth Bill, to dispense as far 
as possible with parliamentary action, and to appeal 
by popular election to the voters of each Colony. To 
give validity to the proposed elections at which rep- 
resentatives were to be returned to a Federal Con^ 
vention, the sanction of each Parliament was re- 
quired. A measure known as the Federal Enabling 
Bill was drafted, and submitted to the several Colon- 
ial Legislatures. But the same difficulties as before 
were experienced in securing prompt and harmonious 
action on the part of the six Australian Parliaments. 
At the beginning of 1897, the Enabling Bill had been 
adopted by all the Colonies except Queensland, the 
elections were proceeded with, and the Federal Con- 
vention was created. During the next year, its mem- 
bers devoted their energies to the drafting of a new 
Federal Constitution, largely based upon the Com- 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 449 

monwealth Bill as amended by the different Parlia- 
ments, and after many difficulties, a measure was 
framed, which, it was thought, effected a satisfactory 
compromise between the many conflicting interests. 
But when it was referred to a plebiscite in each 
Colony, in 1898, some of its provisions were strongly 
opposed in 'New South Wales, where it only escaped 
rejection by the narrow majority of 5,371 votes. 
Renewed conferences resulted in the drafting of a 
third measure, which, in 1899, was adopted by N^ew 
South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, 
and Tasmania, by 376,035 votes, against 131,181. 
In the form presented to the Imperial Parliament for 
ratification, the Commonwealth Bill provided for the 
creation of a Federal Parliament consisting of a Sen- 
ate, to which each Colony will send six representa- 
tives elected for a term of six years: and a House of 
Representatives which will contain, as nearly as pos- 
sible, double the number of members returned to the 
Senate, allotted to the Colonies according to popula- 
tion, no Colony to have less than five representatives. 
Taking the latest statistics of population available, 
we find, that under this arrangement the House of 
Representatives will be made up of 23 members re- 
turned by IN'ew South Wales; 20 by Victoria; 8 by 
Queensland; 6 by South Australia; and 5 by Tas- 
mania; the proportion of representation being one 
member for about every fifty-nine thousand people. 
Under the Commonwealth, the Crown is represented 
by a Governor-General, with an Executive Ministry, 
who act as his advisers. A Supreme Court 
has been created for deciding all questions of law 
which do not affect other parts of the Empire. Free 
trade and intercourse is established between the 
federated Colonies, and among the powers with which 
29 



450 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

tlie Federal Parliament has been invested, are tlie 
imposition and collection of customs and excise, tlie 
control of naval and military defence, posts, tele- 
graphs and telephones, lighthouses and other protec- 
tion for shipping, and quarantine. As representative 
of the Crown, the Governor-General is Commander- 
in-Chief of the naval and military forces. The 
Australian Commonwealth Bill effects the settlement 
of a great question. Statesmen on both sides of the 
seas are equally concerned to render the measure 
-worthy of the aspirations which it embodies, and of 
the race and Empire whose destinies it affects so 
closely. 

With the growth of federation in Australasia, 
there sprang up another feeling which was not con- 
fined to any one portion of the Empire. The desire 
for a closer union between the Mother Country and 
the Colonies was shared by British people in every 
quarter of the globe. For many years, Imperial Fed- 
eration was only a vague sentiment, a magnificent 
dream, which it was thought coidd never be realised. 
Many British statesmen argued that sooner or later 
the Colonies would demand complete independence, 
and that nothing was so likely to precipitate the dis- 
ruption of the Empire as a European War. Was it 
likely, they asked, that Canada and Australia would 
be prepared to make material sacrifices to assist Great 
Britain if she became involved in a conflict Avhich did 
not threaten the interests of those Colonies? Was 
it not much more probable that the Colonies would 
seek independence, in order to avoid being drawn into 
complications which must inevitably arise for a State 
whose interests were affected by European changes, 
and whose possessions were scattered over immense 
distances? But this cynical point of view ignored 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 45I 

the most potent forces that sway mankind. It took 
no account of sentiment, — the ties of blood, lan- 
guage, and religion, and the love of their native land 
with its great historic past, and its priceless services 
to civil and religious liberty, which British people 
carried with them to their new homes across the seas. 
The emigrants who left their native country in search 
of fortune, and are building up new States in other 
parts of the earth, departed not in anger but in 
sorrow. 'No harsh tyranny drove them forth from 
the land of their forefathers. They were not forced 
to seek in distant lands the freedom of conscience 
and the enjoyment of civil rights denied them by an 
iron despotism. But they went forth free-men of a 
free country, to carve out careers for themselves 
under other skies, watching the white cliffs of Eng- 
land recede from view with moist eyes, and hearts 
filled with grateful feelings for the land around 
which, under all vicissitudes of fortune, would gather 
the associations of home and love. Time did not 
dull nor distance dim their feelings of loyalty. They 
were still sons of the Empire, and they handed down 
unbroken and unimpaired, those great emotions of 
devotion to the throne, and veneration for the history 
of the British race, to their children's children. 

*' Dear are the lands where we were born 
Where rest our honoured dead, 
And rich and wide, on every side, 
The fruitful pastures spread. 
But dearer to our faithful hearts 
Than home, or gold, or land, 
Are Britain's laws and Britain's Crown, 
And British flag- of old renown, 
And grip of British hands." 

There were other things beside sentiment which 
were also ignored by the statesmen of a past genera- 



452 POLITICAL TROGKESS OF THE CENTURY. 

tioii. Trade followed tlie flag. With the gT0^^i:li of 
the Colonies there sprang up great commercial bonds 
between the Mother Country and her distant posses- 
sions. Great Britain f onnd new markets created for 
her mannfactnres, the Colonies found at home an 
ever growing demand for their products. Money 
was needed to develop the new lands, and in Colonial 
enterprise, British capital found a safe and profit- 
able field for investment. The link of sentiment was 
strengthened by the bonds of material interest. By 
the marvellous progress of steam and electricity, the 
sense of distance was largely obliterated. Inter- 
course between the people at home and their brothers 
across the seas, stimulated feelings of loyalty and 
mutual respect. The sense of kinship was quick- 
ened: and the people in the old land were profoundly 
moved when it dawned upon them that the Colonists, 
far from ^Wshing to cut themselves off from the Em- 
pire, clung to the British connection, and desired a 
closer political union which would give them a share 
in the control and responsibilities of a world-wide 
realm. 

The Colonial feeling of loyalty to the Throne, 
which is the symbol of Imperial unity, has of recent 
years found many expressions in action. In 1884, 
Canada, where the Imperial instinct has always been 
so strong, sent a body of royageurs to take part in 
the expedition up the Xile for the relief of Klmrtouni, 
and the attempt to save General Gordon. In the 
followim;: vear 800 volunteers from Xew South Wales 
took their place by the side of British troops at 
Suakini. That the futile and humiliating" results of 
those disastrous years did not chill the feelings of 
devotion and self-sacrifice to the cause of the Empire, 
speaks volumes for the loyalty of the Colonies. The 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 453 

growing sentiment in favour of Imperial unity was 
further fostered by the Colonial Exhibition of 1886, 
and by the demonstrations of loyalty in honour of 
the Jubilee of the Queen's reign in 1887. The Con- 
ference of specially appointed delegates from all 
parts, held in London, during that year, under the 
presidency of Mr. Chamberlain, led to results of 
which it is difficult to over estimate the importance. 
]^ot only did the discussion of questions connected 
with Imperial Federation, by politicians of the first 
rank from all parts of the Empire, clear away many 
misconceptions, and promote a better understanding 
of the practical difficulties which have to be faced 
and overcome before any scheme of Imperial unity 
can be realised, but a definite agreement was arrived 
at with regard to the problem of Colonial defence. 
Broadly speaking, the self-governing Colonies under- 
took to maintain an efficient force for their own de- 
fence by land. Great Britain agreed to provide a 
special squadron to afford additional protection for 
Australia, the cost of maintenance being borne by 
the Colonies interested; and the Mother Country 
also undertook to place the defence of the most im- 
portant ports and coaling stations upon a satisfactory 
footing, and in other ways to strengthen the military 
and naval defences of the Empire. The impetus 
given to Imperial defence by the Conference of 1887, 
resulted in large additions being made to the Navy, 
upon the efficiency and capacity of which to cope 
with all possible hostile combinations^, the supremacy 
and safety of the Empire depend. 

Imperial Federation is still only a sentiment, but 
it is a very powerful one. Time is needed before a 
change of the greatest complexity and importance 
can be brought about. Like other momentous alter- 



454 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ations in the Constitution, the closer political nnion 
of the Empire must be the result of a gradual and 
natural growth. It cannot be forced, and the Mother 
Country does well to follow the lead of the Colonies, 
and not attempt to suggest, much less dictate to them, 
upon a matter that involves their individual liberties 
and responsibilities. But there is little doubt that 
Imperial unity will one day become an accomplished 
fact, and events at the close of the century suggest 
that the realisation of that great idea may not long 
be deferred. 

In the history of political progress, the war in 
South Africa occupies an important place. It has 
created what Lord I\osebery described as "a great 
Avind of Imperial spirit." If it has brought Imperial 
Federation a step nearer realisation, it has also taught 
the nation some bitter lessons by which we can 
scarcely fail to profit. The Transvaal was first oc- 
cupied by the Boers in 1836. Fourteen years later, 
a still larger number of the Dutch, vdth whom hatred 
and distrust of England was a deep traditional senti- 
ment, left Cape Colony and took up their residence 
in the country. By the Sand Biver Convention of 
1852, Great Britain recognised the right of the Boers 
to manage their own aifairs according to their own 
laws. But the Republic they established languished, 
and in 1876 was on the verge of bankruptcy and dis- 
solution. Its condition was a menace to the peace 
of South Africa. There was danger that the natives, 
who had long suffered under the rule of the Boers, 
would rise in rebellion and massacre the white popu- 
lation in the Republic and the adjoining territory. 
To avert this catastrophe an appeal was made to the 
British Government. A special Commissioner was 
sent to ascertain the cashes of the people, and re- 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 455 

ported that the condition of the Republic was so hope- 
less, and the situation so alarming, that the majority 
of the Boers desired annexation. There is little 
doubt that these representations faithfully reflected 
the feeling at the time. The country was annexed 
in 1877, Great Britain subjugated the rebellious 
natives, and a promise was made that a liberal system 
of local self-government should be established. Un- 
fortunately there was delay in giving effect to this 
promise. The times were stormy ones; and the at- 
tention of both Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of the 
Cape, and of the Imperial Government, was en- 
grossed by events which appeared to be more pressing. 
An agitation against British rule sprang up. But 
little was required to inflame the animosity of the 
Boers, and out of the eight thousand persons in the 
Transvaal entitled to vote, 6,500 entered a protest 
against the annexation. The conduct of Sir Bartle 
Frere and of Lord Beaconsfield's Government was 
denounced with vehemence by Mr. Gladstone, who 
in a speech at Edinburgh, on November 25th, 1879, 
spoke of "a free, European, Christian, republican 
community" having been shamelessly forced "within 
the limits of a monarchy." It is not improbable that 
the language of the Liberal Leader may have en- 
couraged the agitation in favour of repeal. It is cer- 
tain that Mr. Gladstone's views excited much atten- 
tion in South Africa. They drew from Sir Bartle 
Frere a warning, which, read by the light of after 
events, sounds like a prophecy. "Any attempt,'' Sir 
Bartle Frere said, "to give back or restore the Boer 
Republic in the Transvaal must lead to anarchy and 
failure, and probably at no distant period to a vicious 
imitation of some South American Republic in which 
the more uneducated and misguided Boers, dominated 



456 POLITICAL PROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

and led by better educated foreign adventurers, Ger- 
mans, Hollanders, Irish Home Rulers, and other 
European Republicans and Socialists, will become a 
pest to the whole of South Africa, and a most danger- 
ous fulcrum to any European Power bent on contest- 
ing our naval supremacy, or in injuring us in our 
Colonies." 

Whether that remarkable warning was read by 
Mr. Gladstone is not known. But on his return to 
power in 1880, he seemed .to have materially modified 
his views. Replying to the first demand made by 
Messrs. Kruger and Joubert that the act of annexa- 
tion should be repealed, Mr. Gladstone said: "Look- 
ing to all the circumstances, both of the Transvaal and 
the rest of South Africa, and to the necessity of pre- 
venting a renewal of disorders which might lead to 
disastrous consequences, not only to the Transvaal, 
but to the whole of South Africa, our judgment is 
that the Queen cannot be advised to relinquish her 
sovereignty over the Transvaal, but, consistently 
^vith the maintenance of that sovereignty, we desire 
that the white inhabitants of the Transvaal should, 
without prejudice to the rest of the population, enjoy 
the fullest liberty to manage their local affairs. We 
believe that this liberty may be most easily and 
promptly conceded to the Transvaal as a member of 
a South African Confederation.'' 

The Transvaal War followed. At its opening a 
British force of little over six hundred men was sur- 
prised on Majuba Hill, and driven back with great 
slaughter. General Sir George Colley and over two 
hundred of his men were killed. But another great 
change had taken place in Mr. Gladstone's opinions. 
He had come to the conclusion that Great Britain 
was not justified in retaining the Transvaal by force. 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 45^ 

The independence which he had refused to grant be- 
fore the defeat of Majuba, he now hastened to give. 
In carrying out a policy which he believed was a just 
one Mr. Gladstone was absolutely fearless. A man 
of smaller moral nature would have shrunk from 
making peace after the defeat of the Queen's troops. 
But though we may think that Mr. Gladstone was 
utterly mistaken in his policy, there is no question 
that he acted with lofty magnanimity. If only on 
account of the magnificent spirit of generosity by 
which it was inspired, the settlement of 1881 ought 
to have succeeded. But unfortunately Mr. Glad- 
stone's magnanimity was mistaken by the Boers for 
British fear. By the Convention of 1881 the Trans- 
vaal was given complete self-government under the 
suzerainty of the Queen, and subject to British con- 
trol over the relations of the Republic with foreign 
States. These terms were further modified by the 
Convention of 1884. 

With subsequent events everyone is familiar. 
From the first the Boers used the large measure of 
independence granted them, with the object of mak- 
ing the Transvaal a ^^Sovereign International State." 
The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886, 
led to a large influx of British subjects and British 
capital, and speedily transformed the Transvaal from 
a weak and a poor, into a wealthy and a powerful 
state. N^early the whole of the taxation of the coun- 
try was paid by the new population, who were refused 
by the Boers any share of political power, any meas- 
ure of local self-government. The Administration 
was both corrupt and tyrannical. The right of pub- 
lic meeting was interfered with; the liberty of the 
press was infringed; the law courts were reduced to 
utter servitude, by giving a simple resolution passed 



458 POLITICAL TROGRESS OP THE CENTURY. 

by a majority of tlie small Dutcli Volksraad all the 
force of law. An intolerable domination prevailed. 
The Government was a detestable one; and the ma- 
jority of the population were held in a state of sub- 
jection and inferiority. Constitutional efforts for 
a redress of their grievances having failed, the Uit- 
landers were driven to take up arms. Before their 
organisation was complete the Jameson Raid took 
pLnce, and after its defeat the position of the people 
who owned more than half the land, and at least nine- 
tenths of the property in the country, became more 
intolerable than ever. Repeated representations to 
the British Government, and the shooting of a British 
subject named Edgar, at length compelled the Im- 
perial authority to intervene on behalf of the lives 
and liberties of the Uitlanders. Fruitless negotia- 
tions followed during 1899, culminating in the issue 
on October 9th of the Boer Ultimatum, and the im- 
mediate invasion of British territory. 

The effect of these events upon the Dutch popula- 
tion throughout British South Africa was very seri- 
ous. Before the ink with which the Convention of 
1881 was written had liad time to dry, an organisa- 
tion known as the Afrikander Bond was formed to 
drive the British out of South Africa, or to bring 
them into subjection to the Boers. The founders of 
the Bond made no secret of their aim, or how they 
proposed to attain it, and a study of the scheme pub- 
lished in 1882, shows that in all essential points it 
was put into execution. Mr. Lecky, M. P., the his- 
torian, who is peculiarly qualified to speak mth au- 
thority on the state of feeling among the Dutch of 
South Africa, has stated that disaffection among the 
distinctly Dutch element was "formidably encour- 
aged by the unrest of the Transvaal, by its rapidly- 



DEMOCRACY AND FEDERATION. 45O 

growing military power, by the humiliating spectacle 
of the abortive efforts of England to obtain com- 
mon rights for her own people. Another fact also 
enormously added to the danger. The surrender 
after Majuba was made, I believe, through perfectly 
honest motives, but it has been proved a great calam- 
ity to the world. Following as it did the most dis- 
tinct official assurances that England would never 
surrender the Transvaal, or abandon the English 
who had settled there, it shook through the length 
and breadth of South Africa all confidence in Eng- 
lish strength and resolution, and it has been one of 
the clearest and most undoubted causes of the present 
war." 

There will be no repetition of the follies which 
have brought the war with the Transvaal upon us. 
To discuss upon what lines the settlement will event- 
ually be made would be futile. But the nation is 
determined that ample security shall be obtained 
against a renewal of any similar conflict in South 
Africa. The independence of the Transvaal Repub- 
lic and of the Orange Free State are a thing of the 
past, and the determination that British rule shall 
be supreme for the future in South Africa, no longer 
depends upon the shifting convictions of an individual 
Minister, but upon the decision of the people of the 
Empire, who have given all that is best and dearest 
to them, to put an end for ever to an intolerable men- 
ace to the peace and prosperity of the country. But 
the war has not been without its consolations. 
Under the pressure of adversity the Imperial spirit 
throughout the Empire has been greatly strength- 
ened. The Colonies have rallied to the support of the 
Mother Country, and displayed a spirit of loyalty, 
enthusiasm, and self-sacrifice, which will be remem- 



460 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

bered in future centuries, and will be recalled with 
a flush of pride in ages to come, when the flag which 
is the symbol of our union and our liberties, floats 
over a united people, who will speak through their 
representatives in the Imperial Parliament of a 
federated Empire. 



THE UNITED STATES. 461 



CHAPTEE XXII. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



The growth and progress of the United States form 
one of the most remarkable features of the nineteenth 
century. Within the period, brief in the history of 
nations, of a hundred years, the States, from having 
been one of the weakest, have become one of the 
greatest powers in the world, and a dominant factor 
in civilisation. History affords no parallel of a na- 
tional growth so rapid, so romantic, and so beneficent. 

At the dawn of the nineteenth century the organ- 
ised Government under the Constitution had only 
been in existence for a little over a decade. The 
forces which were to control the development of the 
country were but imperfectly understood. Men were 
slowly groping their way towards the realisation of 
ideals, which they only dimly perceived, and of which 
the full significance even now can scarcely be ap- 
preciated. 

The War of Independence had not been against 
the British as a nation, but against the rule of George 
III. For the first time in its history the English 
Parliament had ceased to command the respect and 
confidence of the people. The system of pocket bor- 
oughs, the narrow limits of the franchise, the secrecy 
of parliamentary proceedings, the laws against the 
press and the right of free speech, had enabled an 
obstinate, despotic and thoroughly unscrupulous sov- 



462 POLITICAL PROGKESS OF THE CENTURY. 

ereign to acquire almost absolute power, and to ignore 
tJie rights of constitutional government. Under the 
guise of Parliamentary Government the King had 
become the absolute director of public affairs. 
Throughout the twelve years, from 1770 till the close 
of the American War, as Green has said, the King 
was in fact the Minister, ^' and the shame of the 
darkest hour of English history lies wholly at his 
door.'' * 

Against this despotic rule, the Americans had suc- 
cessfully revolted. But although thoughts of democ- 
racy were already stirring men's minds, there was as 
yet no deeply rooted objection in the mass of the 
colonists against a monarchical form of government. 
It was not an improbability, in 1783, that the United 
States might return to some fonn of constitutional 
monarchy. The idea was more than once seriously 
contemplated, and Washington declined an offer of 
the discontented officers of the revolutionary army 
to make him King. The feebleness of the Govern- 
ment set up under the Articles of Confederation 
tended rather to foster than to dispel these tendencies. 
When it became clear that a stronger central execu- 
tive was necessary to deal with the new problems with 
which the Confederation was powerless to grapple, 
and the present Constitution was adopted in 1789, 
American society and institutions were still essenti- 
ally English. 

The years between 1789 and 1800 are of profound 
interest to the student of American history. During 
that time, chiefly owing to the energy and capacity of 
Alexander Hamilton, the Federalists, who were in 
power, organised the seven great working depart- 

* *' A short history of the English people," by John Richard 
Grreen, page 777, 



THE UNITED STATES. 463 

ments of the Government, whicli exist to-day essen- 
tially as they were first established, and which are a 
lasting monument to the political genius of one of 
America's greatest statesmen. iSTor was this his only 
achievement. Thirty years later Daniel Webster, in 
speaking of Hamilton, said : " He smote the rock of 
the ^Natural Resources, and abundant streams of rev- 
enue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of 
Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet." 

From the conclusion of the War of Independence, 
two powerful forces had been at work. Having es- 
caped after a long and desperate struggle from the 
tyranny of a strong central government, the first ten- 
dency was to make each Colony an absolutely inde- 
pendent and self-governing State. The war had been 
a struggle for the rights of the individual against 
oppression and injustice. Having fought and won 
their battle, the Colonies naturally placed overwhelm- 
ing emphasis upon the importance of the people of 
each State retaining complete independence to work 
out their destinies untrammelled by any extraneous 
authority. Of this feeling the first result was the 
Articles of Confederation, under which the Federal 
Government possessed only the most shadowy powers, 
and was practically at the mercy of each of the States 
with which it had to deal. At the same time, men 
instinctively felt, rather than clearly recognised, the 
necessity of a strong central government; and from 
the first some of the greatest minds of the period 
cherished the noble ideal of a federal Union which 
should overcome the jealousies of the several States, 
and fuse the conflicting elements into one great na- 
tionality. It is significant that at the beginning of 
this conflict of ideas respecting the powers of the 
central government and the rights of each State, the 



464 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Colonies took a step which made irresistibly for na- 
tionality and union. Under the treaty of peace, of 
1783j the question at once arose whether the territory 
outside the Western boundary of the Colonies, which 
had been ceded by England, belonged to the nation 
as a whole, or to the States to whom, while they were 
Colonies, the King might have granted it The sig- 
niiicance of the question was not recognised at the 
time. But it is easy to see now, that when the States 
having a claim to these lands gave up their rights, 
and the control of this splendid territory was vested 
in the United States as a whole, an almost irresistible 
impulse was given to the federal cause. This im- 
pulse was one of the forces that led to the abandon- 
ment of Confederation and to the adoption, in 1789, 
of the Constitution, Avhich, happily for the United 
States, owing to the conflict between the two ideals 
of individual rights and State independence, and na- 
tionality and union, w^as so cautiously framed, in 
order to disarm hostility, that it has proved to be 
elastic enough to meet the demands made upon its 
adaptability by the changed conditions which have 
arisen during the past century. The Constitution is 
elastic, says one authority, " because the expressions 
used to define the powers granted by the people to 
the Central Government are so vague that their 
meaning really depends on the decision of the Su- 
preme Court, and experience has shown that that 
Court will ultimately interpret the Constitution as 
the people wish." 

Though the adoption of the Constitution gave an 
immense impulse to the spirit of union and nation- 
ality, it left unsolved the great question whether the 
United States had now become one and inseparable, 
or were still a confederation of States whose cor- 



THE UNITED STATES. 465 

porate existence was dependent upon the good will 
of each individual member. The Preamble of the 
Constitution declared that ^* We the people of the 
United States ■ ' establish and ordain the Constitu- 
tion; and upon the meaning and construction of 
those words hung the destiny of the nation. Had the 
Constitution been established by the people of the 
whole of the United States? Or had it been estab- 
lished by the people of each State for itself ? These 
were the questions which first called into existence 
in 1793 the two parties, whose struggles to reconcile 
the antagonistic views were to extend over sixty-seven 
years, and were to culminate in a desperate and 
bloody war. 

In the formation of these two great political par- 
ties, the French Revolution exerted an important in- 
fluence. It gave the impetus needed to marshal the 
forces under their respective leaders. Men's minds 
were curiously divided on the problem of individual 
rights and central control. Liberty and Union ap- 
peared to be at variance. Men feared the power of 
the encroachments of Federal rule, because the past 
history of the world taught them that in government 
strength and oppression generally went hand in 
hand. In these minds, the French Revolution, with 
its demand for the recognition of the Rights of Man, 
found a ready response ; and acting under this great 
moral impulse, what was then known as the Repub- 
lican or Democratic Party, was formed under the 
leadership of Thomas Jefferson. 

In the galaxy of great men who belong to the 
early days of the Union, there is no more notable 
figure than that of Jefferson. He was a man of lofty 
ideals, noble character, and generous sentiments. His 
sagacity as a politician excites our admiration^ as 



4:6Q POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

his conduct as a man compels our homage. To him, 
more than to any other man, the United States is 
indebted for the free institutions under which she has 
rapidly risen from small beginnings to so high a 
place in the civilised world. While the Colonies were 
still groaning under the oppression of George III, 
Jefferson had voiced the wrongs of his fellow men, 
and had pronounced the doom of any Government 
which was not founded on truth and justice. After 
the Declaration of Independence, the original draft 
of which was his handiwork, he laboured incessantly 
for the highest ideal which has ever animated a states- 
man — the establishment of a government by the 
people, of the people, and for the people, based on 
tmth, justice and confidence. As a thinker, as a 
leader, and as a ruler, Jefferson stands out more con- 
spicuously than any of his great contemporaries, ex- 
cept Washington and Hamilton. 

With the ideals of Jefferson and the Opposition, 
the Federalists had only a limited s^nnpathy. In the 
party dominant up to 1800, the cry of the French 
Revolution awakened little or no response. To the 
claim of the French Republic for the assistance of 
the United States, Washington replied by issuing his 
famous Proclamation of l^eutrality. On the Federal 
side the two great leaders were Washington and Ham- 
ilton, both men of the noblest type, of the loftiest 
character and patriotism, inspired by a high sense 
of duty and of justice. But neither of them were 
carried away by the democratic tendencies of their 
time. They were deeply imbued with English ideas 
and traditions, permeated by the spirit of aristocracy, 
and above all eminently wise, sane, practical men, 
upon whom had been laid the burden of bringing 
order out of chaos. To Washington and Hamilton, 



THE UNITED STATES. 467 

with their calmer and broader outlook, it appeared of 
much more importance to secure nationality and 
union, based on a strong central government wield- 
ing justice for the general good, than to try to secure 
the rights of the individual by the erection of each 
State as a bulwark for individual liberty. If they 
had little faith in the tendencies of democracy, they 
shared a noble belief in the high destinies of Ameri- 
can nationality. 

"With the dawn of the new century and the elec- 
tion of Jefferson as President, the old order began to 
change. The conservative force of which Washing- 
ton was the embodiment had accomplished its great 
work, and from this time forward it began to lose 
its hold over men^s minds. A great change also came 
over the beliefs of the Democratic party, which now 
first obtained office under the leadership of Jeffer- 
son. For a time, at least, they shook off the dread 
that the growing power of the Central Government 
might infringb the rights of the individual; and as 
that grim spectre faded aw^ay in the sunshine of 
growing expansion and prosperity, the Democratic 
leaders became infused with the glowing spirit and 
inspiring aims of the Federalists who had sought to 
realise the ideal of " One country, one constitution, 
one destiny.'' 

During the eight years of his administration Jef- 
ferson not only recognised the value of a strong Fed- 
eral Government, but pushed its powers to the very 
verge of the Constitutional limits. Envoys were sent 
to Paris to negotiate with ISTapoleon for the purchase 
of the great tract of territory forming the western 
part of the Mississippi basin, which had been ceded 
by Spain to France. Recognising the difficulty of 
preventing this territory from falling into the hands 



468 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

of England during a war, INTapoleon lent a willing ear 
to the envoys, and Louisiana was bought, in 1803, 
by the Federal Government, for some twelve million 
dollars. Of the sagacity that pix)mpted tlie purchase 
there can only be one opinion, and although the step 
was clearly unauthorised by the Constitution, the 
end, in this instance, justified the means. The pur- 
chase not only strengthened the feeling of nationality, 
but served as a precedent, which was to be followed 
at every opportunity, until the limits of territory be- 
longing to the United States stretched from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific Oceans, and the area under the 
dominion of the Stars and Stripes had been increased 
from 827,844 square miles to 3,596,500. In 1821, 
the difficulties with Spain over the boundary line be- 
tween the possessions of the two countries, led to the 
purchase of Florida, thus extending the jurisdiction 
of the Union to the Gulf of Mexico. By the ratifica- 
tion of the treaty concluded in 1846 with England 
by Webster, the rights of the United States were rec- 
ognised to the ownership of what was then known 
as Oregon, a vast tract which included " the present 
areas of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, with small 
portions of AVyoming and Montana." A year previ- 
ously, Texas, which had shaken off the rule of Mexico 
in 1836, voluntarily threw in its lot with the United 
States, and afterwards sold to the Federal Govern- 
ment a large tract of territory, which now forms part 
of 'New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. 
Between 1848 and 1853 an immense area of country 
was acquired from Mexico at a cost of $25,000,000. 
This territory now forms the states of California, 
Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Wyoming, Colorado, 
New Mexico, and Arizona.* Finally, — if we exclude 
* Stanford's Compendium of Geography. North America, 



THE UNITED STATES. 469 

the acquisition of territory which followed the close 
of the recent war with Spain — the rich, but unex- 
plored territory of Alaska was purchased from Rus- 
sia for $7,200,000, a less amount than has been taken 
out of a single mine now being worked in the country. 
These facts enable us to realise how momentous was 
the step taken by Jefferson, and how large a debt his 
country owes to him for an act of political sagacity 
which required no little courage and showed his con- 
fidence in the destiny of the American people. Freed 
from the conflict with other powers upon her boun- 
daries, the United States was enabled to pursue un- 
trammelled that marvellous course of progression, 
which has given her a foremost place among the 
nations. 

A strong incentive to this policy was furnished 
to the United States by the irritation and heavy losses 
caused by the wars between England and France, and 
the enforcement by Great Britain of her alleged right 
to stop and search American vessels. The Berlin 
and Milan Decrees of IsTapoleon, and the Orders in 
Council by which Canning tried to prevent the 
transfer of the carrying trade from English to neu- 
tral ships, had inflicted great hardship upon Ameri- 
can trade. Jefferson attempted to retaliate by an 
embargo of trade with Europe, but after a year's 
trial the experiment had to be abandoned owing to 
the impossibility of enforcing the law, and the in- 
tense feeling aroused against the Federal Govern- 
ment in the !N'ew England States. In 1809, 
President ]\Iadison substituted an Act of ISTon-Inter- 
course with France and England for the embargo; 
but this was equally ineffective, and was repealed. 

Vol. II. , by Henry Gannett, Chief Geographer of the United 
States Geological Survey. 



470 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Finally, an offer that if either power would repeal its 
edicts, the United States would prohibit commerce 
with the other, was accepted by ISTapoleon, who prom- 
ised to revoke his Berlin and Milan Decrees. In 
accordance with her pledge, America prohibited all 
intercourse with Great Britain and her dependencies. 
This proved a severe blow to English trade, and 
though the Emperor's promise remained unfulfilled, 
Britain protested in vain against the enforcement of 
non-intercourse as an unjust and hostile act. Owing 
to the distress caused in the United States by the long 
strife between England and France, America might 
well have exclaimed, " a plague on both your houses.'' 
Though averse to, and ill-prepared for war, the 
patience of the people w^as exhausted. The right of 
search enforced by England was founded on a wrong 
principle. It was a desperate expedient adopted by 
Canning to meet a desperate situation. During these 
years England was on the brink of industrial ruin. 
In addition to the right of search, the British Gov- 
ernment further claimed the right " to seize English 
seamen found in American vessels ; and as there were 
few means of discriminating between English sea- 
men and American, the sailor of Maine or Massa- 
chusetts was often impressed to serve in the British 
fleet." * Had swifter means of communication then 
existed hostilities might still have been averted. On 
the 23rd of June, 1812, only twelve days after the 
Liverpool Ministry took office, the obnoxious orders 
were rescinded. Five days earlier. Congress had de- 
clared war with Great Britain. It was another ex- 
ample of the fatal policy of " too late." 

With the varying fortunes of the war it is not our 

* See Green's History of the English people, Modern Eng- 
land, Section IV. 



THE UNITED STATES. 471 

province to deal. But it is impossible for any Eng- 
lish writer to refrain from endorsing the judgment 
of John Kichard Green, that the burning of the 
public buildings at Washington when the British 
evacuated the city, was one of the most shameful acts 
in our history. Another incident of the struggle was 
destined to have no small effect upon the political 
progress of the United States. By his successful de- 
fence of ISTew Orleans, and the repulse, in December, 
1814, of the British force under General Packenham, 
with the loss of half its numbers. General Jackson 
became the darling and hero of the American nation. 
To what uses he turned his power will afterwards be 
seen. But it is curious to note that twenty-five days 
before Jackson's notable exploit, peace had been rati- 
fied between the two nations by the Treaty of Ghent, 
in which no reference was made to the English claim 
of the right of search and the seizure of supposed de- 
serters from the British navy. Both nations were 
anxious to enfi a disastrous war from which neither 
could hope to gain material advantage, and the repeal 
of the Orders in Council was accepted as a tacit ac- 
knowledgment that Great Britain had abandoned the 
claims put forward by Canning to meet a temporary 
emergency. Though during the progress of the War 
cries of secession had been raised, there can be no 
doubt that on the whole the struggle made strongly 
for nationality, and was thus a blessing in disguise 
to the United States. 

But the most momentous outcome of these troubles 
was the enunciation of what is known as the Monroe 
Doctrine. Though he did not possess the brilliant 
abilities of some of his contemporaries, James Mon- 
roe was an upright, consistent and faithful servant 
of his country. In 1816, he succeeded Madison as 



472 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

President, and his two administrations are known as 
" the era of good feeling." The Monroe Doctrine 
was not new. But if the President did not originate 
it, he was the first to announce it to foreign powers 
as a fundamental principle of American politics. In 
his Message to Congress, in 1823, he laid it do^vn as 
a principle that '^ the American Continents . . . are 
henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future 
colonisation hj any European power. . . . With the 
existing Colonies or dependencies of any European 
power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. 
But with the governments who have declared their 
independence and maintained it, and whose inde- 
pendence we have . . . acknowledged, we could not 
view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing 
them, or controlling in any other manner their des- 
tiny, by any European power, in any other light 
than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposi- 
tion towards the United States." 

John Quincy Adams had previously asserted that 
the American continents were " henceforth not to be 
considered as subjects for colonisation by any Euro- 
pean power." The reassertion of this principle in 
more explicit terms was called forth by a belief that 
the Holy Alliance contemplated undertaking the sub- 
jugation of the Spanish American States which had 
revolted against persistent oppression and misrule. 
The Monroe Doctrine undoubtedly embodied the sen- 
timent of the people, and has become a first principle 
in American politics. Though its adoption marked 
a new departure in diplomacy, there is nothing in the 
doctrine, when reasonably interpreted, to which 
European Powers are likely to object, though its 
meaning has more than once been perverted to further 
the interests of particular politicians. But we may 



THE UNITED STATES. 473 

trust to the good* sense of tlie mass of the American 
peoj)le to prevent any serious abuse of the great pow- 
ers claimed. That such a declaration was needed, 
was shown by the unscrupulous action of IsTapoleon 
III., who, in 1862, during the progress of the Ameri- 
can Civil War, attempted to set up a monarchy in 
Mexico, under the Archduke Maximilian. It was 
against such flagrant acts of aggression and treachery 
that the Monroe Doctrine was designed to protect 
the United States. But it was certainly never in- 
tended to be used in the manner adopted by Presi- 
dent Cleveland when he intervened, in 1895, between 
Great Britain and Venezuela in the dispute over the 
boundary of their territories. 

The close of President Monroe's term of office 
marks a turning point in the political progress of the 
United States. From the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence up to 1824, progress had been both rapid and 
continuous. The country was now to enter upon 
struggles which did much to retard political develop- 
ment. This was due partly to the temporary break 
dow^n of the party system, and partly to other causes 
almost inseparable from the growth of a new coun- 
try. The A\Tiigs, as the old Federalists had come to 
be called, were in the cold shades of opposition, with 
little prospect of a return to office. To all outward 
appearance the fundamental principle for which they 
had contended, the establishment and maintenance 
of a strong Federal Government, had been adopted 
by their opponents. On the other hand, a quarter 
of a century of almost unlimited power, had tended 
to demoralise the Democratic Party, which became 
split up into irreconcilable factions, under the lead- 
ership of John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Clay, and 
Crawford. The election of Adams as President was 



474 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

followed by the ominous cry of corruption, now first 
heard in American politics. There is no reason to 
believe that corruption played any part in the selec- 
tion of the President. It is at least certain that 
Adams never deigned to use the federal system of 
patronage to promote his own interests. In this and 
many other respects he was a worthy successor of the 
high-minded, conscientious men, who had filled the 
presidency before him. During his four years of 
office the system of a high protective tariff was ex- 
tended, artificially stimulating the manufacturing 
interests of the New England States at the expense 
of the agTicultural South, and accentuating the diffi- 
culties over tlie question of slavery. 

The new forces at w^ork, however, did not come 
into play imtil the return of General Andrew Jackson 
as President, in 1828. Jackson w^as the hero of the 
battle of T^ew Orleans and of the war against the 
Seminole Indians in 1818. His failure to secure the 
presidency in 1824 had rankled in his mind. A man 
of great determination of character, and consider- 
able political sagacity, he was unfortunately deficient 
in those higher moral qualities for which Washing- 
ton and all the succeeding presidents had been dis- 
tinguished. During his remarkable and brilliant 
career Jackson never wholly overcame the deficiencies 
of his early education, nor the effects of his want of 
moral training. To belittle a man who has rendered 
distinguished services to his country is an ungracious 
task; but it is impossible to deny that Jackson was a 
thoroughly unscrupulous politician. With him a de- 
plorable element was introduced into American polit- 
ical life. He was the originator of the evil system 
known as " the spoils to the victors." Until his elec- 
tion the American Civil Service had borne a high 



THE UNITED STATES. 475 

character. By one fell blow he destroyed it. To 
secure his return, he had promised office to everyone 
who worked in his interest; and upon his election 
he made something like a clean sweep of the Civil 
Service, in order to find places for his friends. From 
this blow the United States is only now recovering. 
If Jackson's education and moral training had en- 
abled him to appreciate the far-reaching consequences 
of what he was doing, he would have shrunk from 
incurring so grave a responsibility. 

IvTearly sixty years were necessary to awaken the 
conscience of the nation to the full evils of a system 
under which nearly every postmaster, letter carrier, 
custom house ofiicer, and innumerable other civil serv- 
ants were changed with the party administration. A 
great awakening on this question has taken place 
during the last years of the century ; and though the 
first champions of reform were representatives of 
Jackson's own party, both political forces are now 
making in the same direction. During his term of 
ofiice, which began in 1885, Mr. Cleveland made the 
first serious attempt to grapple with the serious evils 
that had grown up in the Civil Service. Though the 
opposition against reform was almost overwhelming, 
the whole weight of enlightened public opinion was 
with the President; and the example he set has 
borne fruit as the years increased. The majority 
of the 150,000 persons in the employment of the 
nation are now under the protection of a Civil 
Service Law. " The essential feature of this law," 
says Mr. Gannett, " is that it requires that all ac- 
cessions to the Civil Service within the classes pro- 
tected by it shall be made from lists derived from 
Civil Service examinations, which are practically 
free of entry to all. The law does not in terms pro- 



476 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

tect the present incumbents of the offices from dis- 
charge in the least, but by preventing the appointing 
power from appointing its particular favourites, it 
removes the principal reason for discharge, and thus 
indirectly protects. The enforcement of the Civil 
Service Law in all its aspects is in the hands of a 
Civil Service Commission, which is a non-partisan 
commission appointed by the President." * Though 
it is obvious that even the present state of things 
leaves much to be desired, a great change for the 
better has been effected, and the adoption of a Civil 
Service system absolutely independent of party influ- 
ence is only a question of time. 

With the introduction of the steam-engine, Ameri- 
can life began to show its tremendous powder of ex- 
pansion. Manufactures increased, commerce flour- 
ished, while the ^N'ational debt, which had never 
exceeded the relatively small amount of $127,000,- 
000, had been almost extinguished by 1836. But 
increased prosperity could not avert the great strug- 
gle which Avas to settle once and for all the question, 
whether America was to become a great nation or an 
agglomeration of petty states. Among many others 
there were two great causes which made steadily 
towards the crisis of 1860. Of these the first was the 
system of a high protective tariff adopted by the 
Federal Government under pressure from the l^orth- 
ern States, at the expense of the South. In the 
I^orthern States the manufacturing interests were 
predominant, in the Southern the agricultural. To 
maintain an equitable balance between these con- 
flicting interests demanded the highest statesman- 

* The United States by Henry Gannet, Chief Geographer 
of the United States Geological Survey, London, Edward 
Stanford, 1898, page 340-1. 



THE UNITED STATES. 477 

ship. To foster the manufacturing interests of the 
E^orth, the restrictions upon commercial intercourse 
with Europe became more and more severe. This 
policy discriminated unfairly against the South, 
where the staple product was cotton, for which the 
principal markets were in Europe. Under this pres- 
sure the Southern States, which at first had been 
the most strenuous supporters of the Union, grad- 
ually became arraigned against the Federal idea. 
Between 1789 and 1828 the mutter ings in favour of 
secession had come chiefly from the ^N^orth. The em- 
bargo laid on trade with Europe by Jefferson caused 
intense irritation in the 'New England States, and 
during the darkest hours of the war with England 
that followed, the cries of secession were renewed. 
But the system of protection for JSTorthern industries 
produced an entire revolution. Disaffection in the 
South grew as rapidly as loyalty to the Federal Gov- 
ernment increased in the ISTorth. ^^ The tariff of 
abominations,'^ passed by Congress in 1828, brought 
out the change in popular feeling. It was bitterly re- 
sented by the South; and though some of its more 
objectionable features were modified in 1832, South- 
erners still felt that they were being unjustly treated 
for the benefit of the i^orthern States. The result 
was the famous Ordinance of JSTuUification passed by 
the State of South Carolina in E^ovember, 1832, 
against the tariffs of 1828 and 1832, and declaring 
the right and intention of the State, in the event of 
any attempt at coercion, to withdraw from the Union, 
and organise a separate Government. This critical 
situation Jackson met with characteristic prompti- 
tude and energy. An Act authorising the President 
to use force was passed by Congress ; but the struggle 
was to be postponed, and with the election of Clay 



478 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

as President a bill was introduced providing for the 
gradual reduction, by 1842, of all higher duties, to 
twenty per cent. This was passed: and the South 
Carolina Convention repealed the Ordinance of Nul- 
lification ; but the compromise satisfied neither party. 
For the moment the demand on the part of separate 
States of the right to secede was hushed, but there 
were other irresistible causes which were to make it 
break out afresh. 

Up to this period the division between the two 
great political parties had often been more apparent 
than real. The Anti-Federalists, who were at first 
the exponents of the doctrine of the Bights of Man 
and the independence of each State, had not only 
been infected with the spirit of nationality under a 
strong central government, but since 1800 had stead- 
ily extended and consolidated the powers of the 
Federal Executive. During the first half of the cen- 
tury, the right of any State to secede from the Union 
had been denied b}^ both Democrats and Whigs. The 
principle of secession met with no sympathy from 
Jefferson during the years of his administration; it 
had been ignored by his successor Madison; while, as 
we have seen, it was directly denied by Jackson. Had 
Jefferson been able to realise his ideal for the gradual 
emancipation of the slaves, the cry of secession would 
probably never have been heard again, and the nation 
would have escaped the calamity of the Civil War. 

From the beginning of the Union, slavery had been 
repugnant to the moral sense of the mass of the 
American people. At first statesmen contented them- 
selves with attempts to limit the evil. By the law of 
178Y, slavery was prohibited in the new territory 
north of the Ohio. In 1808 the importation of slaves 
was declared illegal, and it was hoped that this right- 



THE UNITED STATES. 479 

eous step, and the growing force of public opinion, 
would gradually lead to a rational solution of the 
evil. From that time, down to 1850,- the conflict be- 
tween the organised forces of slavery and the unor- 
ganised anti-slavery party, raged chiefly round the 
question whether slavery should be sanctioned in new 
States admitted to the Union. ^Notwithstanding the 
strenuous efforts of a considerable section of the 
nation, which numbered in its ranks many of the 
ablest and most enlightened men of the day, the 
slave-owners at first got the best of the struggle. 
In 1812 Louisiana was admitted as a slave-state; 
and in 1820 the great struggle over Missouri ended 
in a compromise which recognised slavery in the new 
State, but declared that the remainder of the terri- 
tory purchased from France should be free for ever. 
The strength of the slavery party was also largely 
increased by the admission of Texas within the Union 
in 1845, and by the compromise known as " Squatter 
Sovereignty," under which it was decided to allow 
the people of each part of the new territory acquired 
from Mexico, to settle the question of slavery for 
themselves. This marks the limits of the success of 
the slavery party. While their opponents had been 
unorganised, resistance had been fierce but ineffective. 
From 1839 onwards the advocates of slavery had to 
battle with a force which gathered strength steadily, 
and soon became irresistible. Though the new Free 
Soil or Republican Party only polled a few thousand 
votes at the election of President W. H. Harrison in 
1839, it was soon to make its power felt. By 1848 it 
had become the most vital force in the Union, and 
the election of General Taylor, the Whig candidate, 
as President, was largely due to the support of the 
Republicans, Two years later, in 1850, in spite of 



4:80 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

the utmost efforts of the South, California was ad- 
mitted as a free State, and slavery was abolished in 
the District of Columbia, — the small area granted 
to the Federal Executive as the seat of Government. 
In 1854 the conflict was transferred to the territory 
of Kansas, where, after a desperate struggle which 
lasted seven years, the Republicans triumphed, and 
slavery was prohibited in the State on its admission 
to the Union. 

The tension between the parties for freedom and 
for slavery had now reached the breaking point. But 
it is curious to note that during these memorable 
years the moral sense of the people of the ISTorthern 
States was more enlightened than that of the rulers 
of the nation. The most conspicuous statesmen of 
the time, though alive to the evils of slavery, were 
not the leaders of the Free Soil Party. Lincoln, who 
was to become the saviour of his country and the 
emancipator of the negroes, only consented to adopt 
the policy of destroying slavery when he became con- 
vinced that it would be a potent force in the struggle 
to prevent secession. Webster, who in 1830 had de- 
clared for " liberty and union, now and for ever, one 
and inseparable," in 1850 supported the Fugitive 
Slave Law, and the admission of slave States to the 
Union. The guiding principle of these great men 
was the preservation of the Union ; that slavery was 
doomed, both admitted, but among the wisest men 
of the North there was no desire to plunge their 
country into civil war to overthrow slavery by force, 
and to inflict ruin upon the slave-owners of the 
South. In spite of the difliculties to be overcome, 
men, who were able to view the situation judicially, 
hoped that the deeply-rooted evils of slavery might 
be got rid of without having recourse to violence; 




WII.I.IAM I,I.OYD GARRISON. 



13 



THE UNITED STATES. 481 

and that these motives exercised great influence over 
a large section of the people is now unquestionable. 
Many of the Democrats, who supported the candida- 
ture of Buchanan for the Presidency, in 1856, were 
almost as strongly opposed to slavery as the Repub- 
licans; and considering the bitterness of feeling at 
the time, the election of Buchanan was rather an evi- 
dence of the long-suffering patience of the majority 
of the people, and their anxiety to do nothing to en- 
danger the Union, than an endorsement of the prin- 
ciple of slavery. 

It is, perhaps, idle to speculate what might have 
been the outcome of the struggles between the two 
great political parties, who had now definitely ranged 
themselves on the sides of freedom and slavery, if 
the slave-owners had not attempted to wreck the 
Union. It is almost certain, however, that war 
would have been averted. Until Lincoln issued his 
famous Emancipation Proclamation, on the 20th 
September, 18,62, the leaders of the Republican party 
had not allowed themselves to be carried away by 
the demands of the out-and-out abolitionists. lAll 
that the Republicans as a party were pledged to, was 
to oppose any extension of slavery. In this they were 
practically at one with the Democrats of the !N^orth. 
But in their eagerness to preserve their own interests, 
the slave-owners of the South demanded that Con- 
gress should both protect and facilitate the extension 
of slavery. It is a striking evidence of how com- 
pletely men's minds may be warped and their moral 
vision distorted by party passion and self interest. 
The demand broke the Democratic Party in two, and 
assured the election of Lincoln as President. One 
month after his return South Carolina seceded, other 
slave States followed, and in February, 1861, the 



482 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

" Confederate States of America " was constituted 
with Jefferson Davis as President. 

With the events of the war we are not concerned. 
The conflict lasted for four years, and cost the 
nation over 600,000 lives, and ten billions of dollars, 
or over £2,061,855,000 sterling. On the 9th of 
April, 1865, Lee surrendered, and the war came to 
an end. In December of the same year, slavery was 
abolished throughout the whole of the United States 
by the thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution; 
and in 1868 and 1870 the fourteenth and fifteenth 
Amendments were passed extending the full rights 
and privileges of citizenship to the former slaves. 
" Thus a war brought on by the South for the pur- 
pose of perpetuating and extending slavery became 
the cause of its destruction.'' * 

The war, we may also believe, practically settled 
once and for ever the vexed question whether the 
several States formed under the Union a political 
power, one and indivisible, or whether the separate 
States retained their sovereignty after the adoption 
of the Constitution. ISTo party is ever likely again 
to arise in the United States to contest the principle 
that the whole people, or the people of all the other 
States, have the right to maintain or enforce the Union 
against any State or States desiring to secede. !N^or 
is it likely that any serious protest will ever again 
be raised to the exercise of the greatly enlarged pow- 
ers which the Federal Government has gradually 
acquired. 

The assassination of President Lincoln, on the 15th 

of April, 1865, had a profound influence on the 

course of political progress. Few events have moved 

the nation to greater sorrow or indignation, and both 

* Henry Gannett. 



THE UNITED STATES. 483 

these feelings were shared by the whole civilised 
world. That within little more than a generation 
three Presidents should have been murdered by fan- 
atics, forms a tragic page in the history of the Re- 
public. But the assassinations of General Garfield 
and Mr. McKinley, like that of Lincoln, were devoid 
of political significance, except so far as they tended 
to deepen sympathy with the United States, and to 
draw closer the bond of friendship between the Eng- 
lish and American people. 

During his tenure of office Lincoln by his probity, 
high sense of duty, directness of purpose, sturdy com- 
mon-sense, and uniform moderation, had obtained a 
strong hold over the confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
He had not only prosecuted the war v/ith unwavering 
resolution, but he had displayed high qualities of 
statesmanship by the many efforts made to conciliate 
the Confederalists, and to secure peace. When the 
war was finally brought to a triumj)hant conclusion, 
the loftiness^f his nature showed itself by a generous 
recognition of the claims of the defeated South upon 
the justice and leniency of the victorious ISTorth. Had 
his life been spared, the United States might have 
averted many of the difficulties produced by the legis- 
lation of the next four years. He was the only 
statesman who could have controlled the violence of 
the contending factions, and have carried out a policy 
of reconstruction on wise and patriotic lines, with 
the least possible delay, and the largest measure of 
generous consideration for the South. His sturdy 
good sense would have enabled him to see the ab- 
surdity of supposing that seven or eight millions of 
educated white Americans would acknowledge the 
political equality of their liberated, illiterate, black 
slaves. All the misery, animosity, and political de- 



484 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

gradation which followed the extension of the fran- 
chise to the negroes immediately after the war might 
have been avoided. Both consideration for a brave 
but vanquished party and a recognition of the ex- 
pediency of proceeding slowly and cautiously in 
making so vast a change in the political and social 
organisation of the Confederate States should have 
deterred American statesmen from forcing an un- 
equal equality of citizenship upon white and black 
inhabitants of States where there was any chance of 
the negroes being in a majority. Had Lincoln been 
succeeded by any man less pugnacious, violent, and 
wholly impractical than President Johnson, the result 
might have been different. But in view of the diffi- 
cuhies created by the irrational action of Johnson 
and the violence of his language, Americans may 
justly feel proud that eventually Congress succeeded 
in carrying out a Policy of reconstruction which read- 
mitted all the rebellious States upon wise and gen- 
erous conditions ; and although the general amnesty 
recommended by President Grant, in 1871, was 
rejected, civil riglits were gradually restored to the 
best members and natural leaders of the Southern 
States, which had been the prey of ignorant negroes 
and unscrupulous " Carpet-B aggers." 

The period since the Civil War has been one rather 
of commercial and industrial expansion than of polit- 
ical progress. But it is noteworthy that in the many 
questions upon which the two great parties have been 
divided public opinion in the long run made steadily 
for development upon the lines of national expediency 
and honour. 

It has been truly said that " in the enjoyment of 
the prosperity which results from the energy of the 
national character operating on tinlimited resources, 



THE UNITED STATES. 485 

the people of the United States can afford to commit, 
for the purposes of experiment, almost every legisla- 
tive and economic blunder.'' But in spite of many 
mistakes, the material and political progress of the 
country has been remarkable. Political corruption is 
gradually though slowly being stamped out ; the vital 
question whether the gold standard in the value of 
the currency was to be maintained was fought out in 
the elections of 1896 and 1900, and is never likely 
to be raised again. The absurdity of any one nation 
embarking upon a policy of bimetallism and the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver has been demon- 
strated ; and the time appears to be within view when 
the United States will cease to maintain an extrava- 
gantly high tariff, which has done so much to foster 
the creation of gigantic trusts and monopolies. From 
the first the Democrats have favoured reductions in 
the tariff, while the Republicans have advocated a sys- 
tem of rigid protection. Here, as in other problems, 
the solution_will probably be found in the happy med- 
ium. It appears improbable that the United States 
will adopt in the near future unlimited free trade. 
She would have everything to lose and little to gain by 
such a policy. But there is a wide difference between 
free trade and the vicious fiscal system which has 
been maintained with slight modifications during the 
last thirty years of the century. The scandalous 
abuse of the pension system is also being modified ; 
and with the development of manufactures in the 
South, prosperity and contentment have returned, 
and the enmity engendered by the war has practically 
died out. 

Since the close of the Civil War, two events have 
occurred of momentous importance in considering 
the political progress of the nation. Of these, the 



486 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

first is the change that has taken place in the senti- 
ment of the American people with regard to the in- 
fluence which the United States should exert outside 
the hounds of her o^\ti territory ; and the second is the 
war with Spain. When President Grant, in 1870, 
urged that Santo Domingo should be annexed in ac- 
cordance with the petition of its President and inhab- 
itants, the Senate, which unquestionably expressed 
the feeling of the mass of the people, refused to 
sanction such a policy. The dominant sentiment in 
the United States w^as strongly opposed to any ex- 
tension of dominions beyond the mainland. Speaking 
broadly, Americans said to all other peoples, " We 
want none of your territory, and liands off ours and 
that of our neighbours." In all international disputes 
with which they were not immediately and materi- 
ally concerned, the American people w^ere apt to adopt 
tlie mental attitude expressed by the Scriptural for- 
mula : '^ Am I my brother's keeper ? '' It is obvious 
that watli the growth and developments which have 
raised the United States to so high a place among 
the great nations of the world, this state of assumed 
indifference to what took place in other quarters of 
the globe could not be maintained for long. Nations 
have other duties to discharge besides looking after 
their own welfare. The moral impulse which under- 
lies AVestern Civilisation, renders it more and more 
difficult for an enlightened people to witness with in- 
difference what concerns the well-being of any section 
of their fellow-beings. And careful observers had 
long detected signs that in this respect a great change 
was coming over American feeling, and that at no 
distant date the United States would exert her enor- 
mous moral force everywhere and on every occasion 
in the interests of truth, justice, and freedom. It 



THE UNITED STATES. 487 

was this change of national sentiment that culminated 
in 1898 in the war with Spain, the liberation of 
Cuba, the annexation of the Philippine Islands, and 
the acceptance of sovereignty over the Hawaiian or 
Sandwich Islands. 

Ever since its discovery Cuba had groaned under 
the oppressive rule of Spain. For half a century 
chronic insurrection had smoulderd in the island, and 
rising after rising had been put down with ruthless 
brutality by Spanish troops. Remonstrances against 
Spanish barbarity, against the arbitrary arrest and 
interference with the rights of American citizens, 
had repeatedly been addressed to the Government at 
Madrid, without producing any effect. From 1870 
do^vn to the date of the Declaration of War, there 
was scarcely a Presidential Message to Congress that 
did not contain references to the troubles in Cuba, to 
the losses inflicted upon American trade and com- 
merce, to the cost to the United States of enforcing 
its neutrality laws, and to the irritation and revul- 
sion of feeling caused by the cruelty of the Spanish 
authorities. On more than one occasion it required 
all the influence of the Executive to prevent the rec- 
ognition by Congress of the Cuban insurgents as bel- 
ligerents. In 1873, the Yirginius, an American 
vessel, loaded with military stores for the Cuban in- 
surgents, was captured by the Spanish cruiser. Tor- 
nado, and fifty-seven of the crew were executed by 
order of the Governor of Santiago de Cuba, with 
scarcely the form of a regular trial. The incident 
produced a painful sensation. There can be no doubt 
that the use by the Virginius of the American 
flag, was unauthorised, but this was no excuse for the 
high-handed and savage massacre of sailors, stewards 
and engine-men, who were subjects of a friendly na- 



488 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

tion. It was obvious that American toleration of 
Spanish misrule could not continue indefinitely. 
The United States between 1870 and 1898 displayed 
a forbearance that probably would not have been ex- 
ercised by any other great Power. 

When in February, 1895, the flame of insurrection 
again broke out in Cuba, the rebellion excited the 
warm sympathy of a large portion of the American 
nation. The barbarity of the 200,000 Spanish troops 
sent to suppress the rising, and the dogged resistance 
of the insurgents strongly influenced popular feeling. 

During the following year the President made an 
effort to bring about peace through the mediation of 
the American Government ; but the Spanish Ministry 
refused to consider any plan of settlement which did 
not begin with the unconditional surrender of the 
insurgents. 

Under the direction of General Weyler the policy 
of devastation, and of concentrating the agricultural 
population in the towns, in order to cut off the re- 
sources of the insurgents, was pressed forward with 
an inhumanity unprecedented in the history of a civ- 
lised people. Over three hundred thousand people 
were herded into the towns, without any provision 
being made for their needs. They were deprived of 
the means of support, left without shelter or cloth- 
ing, and exposed to the most insanitary conditions. 
" Destitution and want,'' President McKinley added, 
" speedily became misery and starvation." It is al- 
leged that over 400,000 men, women and children 
perished miserably by famine or disease. 

The assassination of Canovas, the Spanish Prime 
Minister, on August 8, 1807, led to the formation of 
a new Government under the leadership of Seiior 
Sagasta. Prom this more liberal administration 



THE UNITED STATES. 489 

great things were hoped. Negotiations were opened 
bj the United States through General Woodford, who 
urged that immediate steps should be taken for the 
effective amelioration of the condition of Cuba. To 
these representations the Government of Spain re- 
plied by recalling General Weyler, and entrusting the 
conduct of Cuban affairs to General Blanco, who was 
empowered to bring about a settlement with the in- 
surgents by peaceful means, if possible. To this 
was added a promise that the fullest autonomy com- 
patible with the sovereign rights of Spain should be 
accorded to the Cubans. Though the methods of 
General Blanco proved to be more humane than those 
of General Weyler, no progress was made in the paci- 
fication of the island. The sufferings of the popula- 
tion were still appalling ; and the promise of a liberal 
measure of self-government proved to be a sham. 
Anything more farcical than the Cuban elections, 
which were supposed to reflect the wishes of the peo- 
ple, could not be imagined. The Spanish idea of a 
representative assembly turned out to be a body 
consisting of candidates nominated by the military 
authorities, and approved by the Governor ! With 
the exception of the mass of the people the Cuban 
legislature was no doubt representative. 

Meanwhile the sufferings of the Cubans had ex- 
cited warm sympathy throughout the United States. 
A Relief Committee was formed under the auspices 
of the Red Cross Society, and through its efforts, 
aided by the Government and the generosity of the 
American people, thousands of innocent people were 
rescued from starvation. 

From the first, the Spanish Government had de- 
clined all offers of mediation on the part of the 
United States. Spanish officials were determined not 



490 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

to yield to American pretensions to intervene in 
Cuba. It became necessary, therefore, for the United 
States to decide whether she would exert her un- 
doubted moral rights to put an end to the calamitous 
state of affairs in the island, or whether she was pre- 
pared to tolerate for an indefinite period the evils 
against which she had protested in vain for more 
than a generation. At the beginning of 1898 an 
event occurred which made irresistibly for interven- 
tion. 

Under an amicable agreement with the Spanish 
Government, the American battle-ship Maine en- 
tered the harbour of Havana on the 25th of January, 
and was anchored in a berth assigned by the Spanish 
naval authorities. The understanding was that the 
vessel was to remain at Havana on a friendly visit in 
order to protect American lives and property, in the 
event of any serious disturbance. There can be no 
doubt tliat the presence of an American man-of-war 
was bitterly resented by Spaniards in Cuba, and it is 
alleged that " dark threats were uttered against the 
ship and her crew." On the night of February 15th 
the Maine was destroyed by an explosion. Two of 
her officers and 264 of her crew perished, and sixty 
others were wounded. " The appalling calamity," as 
President McKinley stated in his message to Congress, 
'^ fell upon our country with crushing force, and for 
a brief time intense excitement prevailed, which, in a 
community less just and self -controlled than ours, 
might have led to hasty acts of blind resentment." 
A I^Taval Court of Inquiry was at once organised to 
report upon the destruction of the ship, and conducted 
its operations with the utmost deliberation and judg- 
ment. The Court found that the loss of the Maine 
was in no way due to any fault of the officers or mem- 



THE UNITED STATES. 491 

bers of the crew, but that the ship had been destroyed 
by the explosion of a sub-marine mine, which caused 
the partial explosion of two or more of the vessel's 
forward magazines. No evidence was obtainable 
fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the 
Maine upon any person or persons. The Spanish 
Government, which had expressed a genuine regret at 
the catastrophe, had proposed a joint investigation 
into the cause of the explosion. This was declined 
by the United States. After the examination of the 
wreck by the American Naval Court of Inquiry, the 
Spanish authorities made a separate investigation, 
which resulted in conclusions attributing the disaster 
to an accidental explosion in the forward storerooms 
of the ship. Between these conflicting opinions, only 
an expert in possession of all the facts could decide. 
To the ordinary mind the report of the American 
Naval Court of Inquiry appears conclusive; and 
there is only too good reason to fear that the destruc- 
tion of the Maine was the deliberate act of a number 
of Spanish fanatics. Probably the truth will never 
be known ; but it is needless to say that no one for a 
moment supposed that the Spanish Government had 
any part directly, or indirectly, in the perpetration 
of so dastardly and stupid an outrage. In Presi- 
dent McKinley's message to Congress, embodying the 
report of the Court of Inquiry, no disposition was 
shown to consider the loss of the Maine '^ as more than 
an incident in the great issue of intervention in 
Cuba." But it would be futile to deny that " it was 
an incident of overmastering influence in hastening 
national decision." From that time the feeling 
throughout the country in favour of interference be- 
came irresistible. 

In the conduct of the negotiations that followed, 



492 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Presideut McKinley inaintaincd a modoration and 
dignity of bearing wliioli, tlioiigh opposed to the ex- 
treme war faction at the time, raised him to a high 
position in the confidence and respect, not only of the 
American nation, but of the whole civilised world; 
a position which he held unshaken to the time of his 
trairic death bv the hand of an assassin. The Madrid 
Government were warned, throusrh General Wood- 
ford, that unless an agreement assm*ing immediate 
and honourable peace to Cuba was reached within a 
few days, the President Avould feel himself con- 
strained to submit to the decision of Confi:ress the 
whole question of the relations between the United 
States and Spain. To this the Government at Madrid 
replied by once more declining mediation on the part 
of the United States, and promising to make peace 
through the Cuban Parliament, the members of 
which, as already stated, were mere creatures of the 
Spanish military oliicials. On the 11th of April, 
180S, the President addressed a lengthy message to 
Congress, in which the whole of the difficulties be- 
tween the United States and Spain, about the ques- 
tion of misrule in Cuba, were set out with moderation 
and masterly cle^irness. Congress replied by passing 
a series of resolutions declaring that the people of 
Cuba were, and of right ought to be, free and inde- 
pendent ; that it was the duty of the United States to 
demand that Spain should relinquish her authority 
and government in the island, and withdraw her land 
and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters; and 
that the President was empowered to employ the 
American army and navy to give effect to these de- 
mands. Before these resolutions could become law, 
they required the signature of the President. This 
was withheld while Mr. McKinlev made a last effort 



THE UNITED STATES. 493 

in the interests of peace. But before General Wood- 
ford could lay the ultimatum of the United States be- 
fore the Foreign Minister at Madrid, Spain broke off 
diplomatic relations. 

Into the events of the war it is not necessary to 
enter. On May 1st, ten days after the beginning of 
the conflict, Admiral Dewey annihilated the Spanish 
fleet at Manilla — a memorable exploit. A few weeks 
later, the fleet under Admiral Cervera was destroyed 
in attempting to make its escape from the harbour of 
Santiago. Recognising at last the hopelessness of the 
contest upon which she had entered, Spain appealed 
to France to mediate, and preliminaries of peace 
were adopted on August 12th. At the Peace Com- 
mission which followed at Paris, the United States 
demanded the surrender of Cuba without its huge 
debt, and the cession of the Philippine Islands, offer- 
ing Spain $20,000,000 as a lump sum for all expendi- 
ture in betterment, and in settlement of all claims 
made by individuals between the two countries. 
These terms were finally ratified on December 10th, 
and Spain lost the final remnant of her once great 
colonial empire. 

In demanding the surrender of Cuba by Spain, the 
United States sought no acquisition of territory. Un- 
til a stable and satisfactory form of government can 
be established, the island remains under American 
rule; but the question whether Cuba will eventually 
become a part of the dominions of the American na- 
tion will be left to the inhabitants to decide for them- 
selves. The forcible annexation of the Philippines 
is on a totally different footing, and the United States 
have experienced in those islands the difiiculties in- 
separable from an imperialist policy. Both this step, 
and the annexation in July, 1898, of the Hawaiian 



494 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 

Islands, though undertaken at the request and with 
the full consent of the inhabitants, have been strongly 
opposed by a minority of the American nation. This 
party disapproves of the policy of expansion, and con- 
tends that the annexation of distant islands, whether 
with or without the assent of the inhabitants, is not 
in harmony with the Constitution. While we may 
sympathise wdth this view, we doubt whether it is one 
that can prevail in face of the increasing competition 
that has sprung up between civilised nations for the 
trade of foreign countries, and particularly of the 
Far East. 

In any review of the chief features of the political 
progress of the United States, it is necessary to touch, 
however briefly, upon the dominant factors which 
have enabled the nation to increase in population dur- 
ing the century, from less than five and a half to over 
seventy-two millions, and which have made the people 
the leading agTicultural and manufacturing nation of 
the Avorld, and an almost irresistible force in civilisa- 
tion. Of these factors the most potent, undoubtedly, 
was the race and character of the early colonists. 
Until the rush to the goldfields of California in 1849, 
the majority of the emigrants to the United States 
represented the flower of the manhood of the civilised 
world. For nearly two centuries after the landing 
of the Pilgrim Fathers, the country continued to at- 
tract men of the stoutest hearts, the finest physiques, 
and often the noblest ambitions. I^ot only Great 
Britain and Ireland, but many continental countries 
were drained of a portion of their best manhood to 
feed the growth of the new nation across the seas. 
During those early days, before transportation had 
been rendered cheap, and while the ocean voyage had 
not been robbed of its terrors, it was generally the 



THE UNITED STATES. 495 

strong and the brave who emigrated and the more 
feeble who remained at home. Out of this splendid 
material the American nation has been built up. 
From the first the Anglo-Saxon element predomi- 
nated, and has succeeded in maintaining its ascend- 
ency, assimilating in a marvellous manner other na- 
tionalities without losing its own peculiar qualities. 
The second momentous factor in the development of 
the nation was the liberty enjoyed by the individual 
to employ his abilities for the benefit of himself and 
his fellows, untrammelled by the crushing weight of 
the dead hand of feudalism. In spite of many politi- 
cal and economic mistakes, the United States af- 
forded each man an equality of opportunity unknown 
until comparatively recent years in any other coun- 
try. These, it appears to us, are the vital causes which 
have enabled the American people to accomplish 
such stupendous results within so brief a period. On 
the vast resources of the continent, containing within 
itself every variety of climate, a rich virgin soil, and 
inexhaustible wealth, it is not necessary to dwell. All 
these riches would have been useless without the vig- 
orous brains and strong hands to develop them. 

Though we do not imagine that the individual 
American has any higher moral outlook than the 
average citizen of other civilised countries, the moral 
energy of the nation as a whole is remarkable, and 
has enabled the people to face and to solve success- 
fully some of the most difficult problems of modern 
times. This moral force, which has been the main- 
spring of American political sagacity, has shown it- 
self also in the restraints placed upon Chinese and 
foreign pauper immigration; the treatment of the 
anarchical and lawless element of the population ; the 
repression of Mormonism, which at one time threat- 



496 POLITICAL PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY 

ened to debase the ideal Christian life ; and of recent 
years in the policy adopted to advance the Indians 
along the path of civilisation. Among many other 
ways in which this beneficent force has made itself 
felt mav be instanced the effective organisation of 
charitable effort, the administration of poor-law re- 
lief, the advancement of education upon eminently 
practical lines, the promotion of civil and religious 
freedom, and the enlightened measures adopted for 
the care of the blind, the deaf, the dumb and the halt 
— for all those who by natural incapacity are unfitted 
to fight the battle of life unaided, or who in the storm 
and stress of the struggle have fallen by the wayside. 
Hitherto the enormous moral force exerted by this 
great people has been chiefly exercised within the 
bounds of its own territory. The probability that in 
the future it will have to be reckoned with in every 
part of the world foreshadows a development of 
Anglo-Saxon influence on behalf of progress, liberty, 
and the advancement of Christianity, which may be- 
come the most beneficent influence in the Twentieth 
Century. 



INDEX. 



Abdur-Rahman, Ameer, (1880), 244. 

His reforms, 249. 
Aberdeen, Earl of, 80, 94, 113-117. 
Achmet, Mahomet, 223. 
Act of Union, The, (1801), 16, 17, 18, 

47. 
Adams, President John Quincy, 473, 

474. 
"Adullamites," The, 142. 
Adulteration of Food, Laws against, 

303. 
Affirmation question raised by Mr. 

Bradlaugh, (1880), 316-321. 
Afghanistan, 235-251. 
Wars with England, (1878-79), 243- 

244. 
Agricultural Labourers, condition 

of, in England, 359. 
Agricultural Holdings Act, (1875), 

306. 
Agricultural Holdmgs Act, (1884), 

358, 442. 
Agricultural Holdings Act, (1892), 

408. 
"Alabama" Award, (1872), 134-136. 
Alaska, purchased by the United 

States, (1867), 469. 
Alexander II. of Russia, 269, 277. 
Alexander III. of Russia, 277-279. 
Alsace and Lorraine, 151. 
Althorp, Lord, 42, 47, 50. 
American Civil War, (1860), 131-184, 

482. 
Andrassy Note, The, (1875), 180, 185. 
Anglo-Turkish Convention, (1878), 

198. 
Anti-Corn Law League, (1838), 73. 
Arabi Pasha's Rebellion, (1882), 214. 
Armenian Massacres, (1895-96), 419- 

420. 
Army, Abolition of the Purchase 

System, (1871), 166-8. 
Army Discipline Act, (1879), 307. 
Arrears (Ir&land) Act, (1882), 349. 
Artisans' Dwelling Act, (1875), 805. 
Artois, Count of, 27. 
Ashbourne, Lord, Irish Land Pur- 
chase Acts, (1886, 1888, 1890-91), 

383, 400, 407. 

32 



Ashley, Lord. See Earl of Shaftes- 
bury. 

Asia, Central, and Russia, 235, 240, 
243,250,261,280. 

Auckland, Lord, 236. 

Austerlitz, battle of, (1805), 20. 

Australia, Federation of, (1900), 445- 
450. 
House of Representatives in Fed- 
eral Parliament, 449. 

Austria and Italy, 25, 97, 106. 

B 

Baker, Sir Samuel and the Soudan, 

217, 219. 
Balfour, A. J., Irish Local Govern- 
ment Bill, (1892). 410. 
Balkan Provinces, The, 177, 178, 186, 

200, 205, 281. 
Ballot Act, (1871), 164-5. 
Bankruptcy Act, (1884), 360. 
Baring, Sir Evelyn and General Gor- 
don, 228-230. 
Bashi-Bazouks' Outrages in Bul- 
garia, (1876), 181-184. 
Beaconsfield, The Earl of, 28, 39, 74, 
75, 113, 144, 169, 172. 
And the Bulgarian Atrocities, 185- 

6, 190. 
The Anglo-Turkish Convention, 

(1878), 198-200. 
And the Eastern Question, 201-206. 
Purchase of the Khedive's Suez 

Canal Shares, 209-213. 
Policy in Afghanistan, 246-248. 
India, 262-263. 
On Lord Salisbury, 297. 
Letter to the Duke of Marlborough 
on the State of Ireland, (1880), 
314. 
Death of, (1881), 341. 
Benefices Act, (1898), 424. 
Bentinck, Lord George, 34. 
Berlin Congress, (1878), 198-200. 
Bill of Rights, The, and the Declara- 
tion of Rights, 5. 
Bismarck, Prince, 145-151, 153. 
Board of Education, creation of, 

(1898), 424. 
Bonaparte, Joseph, 21. 

497 



498 



INDEX. 



Boycotting, (1880), 325, 327-330. 
Bradlaugh, Charles, refusal to take 

Parliamentary Oath, (1880), 316- 

321 
Bright! John, 43, 73, 77, 142, 403. 
British North America Act, (1837), 

61. 
British Reforms in Egypt, 213-215. 
British Rule in India, 251-264. 
British Seamen, Mr. Plimsoll's ef- 
forts for the protection of, 298- 

300. 
Broadhurst, Henry, M. P., 300, 391. 
Brougham, Lord, 46. 
Bruce, Mr., and the restriction of 

the drink traffic, 300-304. 
Buchanan, President, 481. 
Bulgarian Atrocities, (1876), 181-184. 
Bulwer, Sir H. Lytton, 122. 
Burial Laws Amendment Act, (1880), 

321 
Burke," Edmund, 1, 4, 6, 9, 25, 44, 59, 

60, 84, 120. 
Burke, Richard, 12, 13. 
Butt, Isaac, 171. 
Byrou, Lord, 26, 28. 



Cabul massacre, (1879), 248. 

Cadiz, Duke of, 94. 

Cairns, Lord, 305. 

Canada, 58, 59, 60-65. 
Federation of (1867), 61, 445. 

Canning, George, 29, 32, 34, 47. 
The "Right of Search," 469, 470. 

Canning, Lord, 123. 

Canning, Sir Stratford. See Lord 
Stratford de Redcliffe. 

Carey, James, of the Irish "Invin- 
cibles," 351-353. 

Carolina, South, and the Right of 
Secession, 481, 482, 

Catholic Emancipation, 18, 19, 33, 34, 
86. 

Cavendish, Lord Frederick, assas- 
sination of, (1882), 348, 352. 

Cervera, Admiral, destruction of his 
fleet, (1898), 493. 

Chalmers, Dr., and the Scotch Free 
Church, 296. 

Chamberlain, Joseph, Bankruptcy 
Act, (1884), 360. 
Vote of censure moved on, (1884), 

375. 
Home Rule opposed by, and 
" Liberal Unionist " party form- 
ed (1886), 392. 
Office under Conservative Gov- 
ernment accepted by, (1895), 417. 
Employers' Liability Act, (1897), 
421. 

Charle8X.,27, 80, 58. 

Chartist agitation, (1838-1848), 75, 
101, 102. 



Children, duty of the State towards, 

437^38. 
China and Japan, 286, 292-294. 

And Russia, 281, 293. 
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 321, 362, 

375, 382, 395. 
Church of England, Public Worship 

Regulation Act, (1874), 297. 
Creation of Additional Bishoprics, 

(1878), 306. 
Civil Service, British Competitive 

System, (1870), 165. 
Civil Service in the United States, 

474-475, 476. 
Clarendon, Lord, and Turkish mis- 
rule 175 179. 
Clerkenwell' Explosion, The, (1867), 

139. 
Cleveland, President, and the Mon- 
roe Doctrine, (1895), 473. 
Cobden, Richard, 73, 76, 77, 82, 83. 
Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800, 

433. 
Compensation for Disturbance (Ire- 
land) Bill, (1880), 324. 
Constantinople Conference, (1876), 

189-193, 
Co-operation, growth of, 435. 
Corea and Japan, 284, 291-294, 

And Russia, 281. 
Corn Laws, 23, 74, 76. 
Cornwallis, Lord, 16. 
Corrupt Practices at Elections Act 

for suppression of, (1884), 356- 

358. 
County Councils established by 

Local Government Acts, (39^ 

400, 403, 423. 
Coup d'Etat, The, (1851), 110. 
Cracow, 95, 96. 

Crimean War, (1854), 113-122, 
Crimes (Ireland) Act, (1882), 348-349, 

381 383 
Criminal Evidence Act, (1898), 425. 
Croke, Archbishop ; part taken by, 

in Irish politics, 337, 340, 354-355. 
Croker, John Wilson, 39. 
Cross, Richard, 305. 
Cuba, Spanish Misrule, 487-8-9. 
Mediation of the United States, 

488, 489, 490, 492. 
Declared free, (1898), 493. 
Curzon, Lord, and India, 260 
Cyprus, 198, 200. 



Death Duties, Graduated, (1894), 

416-417, 443, 
Declaration of Independence, (1776), 

5, 7. 
Democracy, rise and development 

of, 426-444. 
Derby, Earl of, 113, 143, 184, 186, 191, 

193, 196. 



INDEX. 



499 



Devonshire, Duke of, 210, 307, 417, 

414. 
Dewey, Admiral, 493. 
Disraeli, Benjamin. See Earl of 

Beaconsfield. 
Dock-labourers' strike in London, 

(1889), 403. 
Dominion of Canada, 60, 61-65, 445. 
Dual Control in Egypt, 214. 
Dufferin, Lord, 62-65, 122, 214. 
Durham, Lord, 60. 

E 

East India company, 124, 126. 
Eastern Question, The, 29, 66, 70, 

107, 113-132, 174-206. 
Ecclesiastical Titles Act, (1851), 91, 
Education, National, in Great Brit- 
ain, 46, 87, 88. 
Elementary Education Act, (1870), 

160-164, 168. 
Elementary Education Act, (1876), 

304. 
Education Act, (1891), 407-408. 
Board of Education created, (1898), 
424. 
Egypt, 69, 207. 

And the Soudan, 216-234. 
EUenborough, Lord, 237. 
Elliott, Ebenezer, 75. 
Elliot, Sir H., on Turkish misrule, 

179, 180. 
Employers' Liability Act, (1897), 421. 
England and the American Colonies, 

59. 
England and the United States, 461, 
462. 
Treaty of 1846, 468. 
''The Right of Search," 470, 471. 
Entail, old law of, abolished, 442, 
Eylau, Battle of, (1806), 20. 

F. 

Factories and Workshops Acts, 88, 
89, 408. 

Famines in India, 257-260. 

Fawcett, Henry, 210. 

Federation : 
Canadian, (1867), 61, 445. 
Australian, successive steps to- 
wards and completion of, 445- 
450. 
Imperial, growth of sentiment 
for, 450-454, 459. 

Fenian Raids on Canada, (1866), 137. 

Fenianism in Ireland, (1867), 137- 
140, 311-379. 

Ferdinand XII. of Spain, 27. 

Fiji Islands, annexed by Great Brit- 
ain, (1874), 295. 

Fitzwilliam, Lord, 14. 

Five Powers, Treaty of the, (1841), 
70, 73. 



Flogging in the Army, 307. 
Florida, Purchased by the United 

States, (1821), 468. 
Formosa and Japan, 286, 293. 
Forster, W, E. 
Elementary Education Act, (1870), 

162-4. 
Ballot Act, (1871), 164-5. 
Chief Secretary for Ireland, 316, 

325, 229, 333. 
Resignation, (1882), 345-348, 
Fourth Party, The, 321, 382, 
Fox, Charles James, on the French 

Revolution, 4. 
Franchise Act, (1884), 361-367. 
Contest between the Houses of 
Lords and Commons, over, 367- 
377. 
Francis Joseph, Emperor of Aus- 
tria, 106, 
Frederick William IV., King of 

Prussia, 100. 
France : 
French Revolution, (1789), 2. 
(1848), 98. 
" " (1870), 151, 

French Republic, (1848), 99. 
The Crimean War, 113-122, 
Italy, 101, 149, 

Franco-German War, (1870), 146- 
151, 
Free Church of Scotland, 296, 
Free-Soil Party in the United States, 

479, 480, 
Free Trade Movement, 73, 75, 79, 82, 

84, 
Frere, Sir Bartle, 455-456. 



G. 



George III., 7, 18, 19, 461, 462. 
George IV., 32. 

German Empire, The North, 145. 
Germany, Commercial Expansion, 
154. 
Growth of the Population, 154. 
Socialism, 154. 
Gibbon, Edward, 102. 
Gladstone, W, E., 22, 35,40, 72, 74,76, 
91, 109, 113, 173. 
American Civil War, 133. 
Clerkenwell Explosion, 139-140. 
The Irish Church, 139, 144, 158. 
Irish Land Laws, 159, 168. 
Irish University Bill, 159. 
Abolition of the Purchase System 

in the Army, 166, 
Resigns the Leadership of his 

Party, (1874), 172, 
Russo-Turkish War, 195, 
Lord Beaconsfleld's Eastern Pol- 
icy, 201-206. 
And the Purchase of the Suez 
Canal Shares, 211, 



500 



INDEX. 



Lord Beaconsfield's Policy in Af- 
ghanistan, 245-246 

The Penjdeh Incident, 250. 

The Public Worship Regulation 
Act, 297. 

The Reform of the Licensing laws, 
300-3M. 

Flogging in the Army, 307. 

Midlothian Campaign, (1880), 313. 

Irish legislation of, (1880-82), 323- 
340, 344-355. 

Franchise and Redistribution of 
Seats Bills, (1884), 363-379. 

Conversion of to Home Rule, 
(1885), 385-390. 

First Home Rule Bill, (1886), 391- 
393. 

Retirement of Mr. Parnell de- 
manded by, (1890), 405-106. 

Second Home Rule Bill, (1893), 
413-414. 

Resignation of, (1894), 415. 

Efforts by on behalf of Arme- 
nians, (1895-6). 419. 

Death, 422. 

South African policy of, 455-457, 
459. 
Gordon, General, and the Soudan, 
218-234. 

The Slave trade, 222. 

And Mr. Gladstone's Ministry, 
224, 228-230. 
Goschen, Mr., and Egypt, 218. 

Conversion of National Debt by, 
(1888), 400. 

Scheme of Naval Construction, 
(1889), 403. 
Great Britain and Afghanistan, 235- 

251. 
Greece, 28, 29, 68, 107. 
Greenwood, Frederick, and the Suez 

Canal, 209. 
Grey, Earl, 38-41. 43, 44. 
Ground Game Act, (1880), 322-323. 
Guizot, M., 27, 68, 69, 93, W, 98. 



Hamilton, Alexander, 462, 463, 466, 

467. 
Harcourt, Sir William, and the 

Graduated Death Duties, (18S4), 

416-417, 443. 
Hartington, Lord. See Duke of 

Devonshire. 
Hawaiian Islands annexed by the 

United States, (1898;, 493. 
Hicks, Colonel, destruction of his 

Army by the Mahdi, (1883), 223. 
Holy Alliance, The, (1815), 23, 24, 57, 

66. 
Home Rule and Ireland, 170. 
Home Rule League, 172. 
Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bills, 

First, (1886), 391-393. 



Second, (1893), 413-414. 
Mr. Gladstone's Statement in 1880, 
313. 
House of Commons, Organized Ob- 
struction in, 807-311. 
Reform of the Rules of Procedure, 
(1880), 311. 
House of Lords : 
Appellate Jurisdiction of, 305. 
Compensation for Disturbance 
(Ireland) Bill rejected by, (1880), 
324-325. 
Franchise Bill opposed by, (1884), 

368-377. 
Second Home Rule Bill rejected 
by, (1893), 414. 
Housing of the Poor, 305, 384. 
Hume, David, 103. 
Hume, Joseph, 53, 54. 



Imperial Penny Postage, (1898), 434 
India : 
The Mutiny, (1857), 122-124. 
North West frontier, 285-250. 
Development of the Country, 256. 
Famines, 257-260. 
Ireland, 11, 16, 48, 50, 86, 77, 87. 
Disestablishment of the Irish 

Church, (1869), 139, 144, 158, 168. 
University Education, 159, 169,307. 
Intermediate Education, (1878), 

306. 
Irish Members and Obstruction 

in Parliament, 307-311. 
Agrarian Crime (1878-80), 311, 
The Land League, 312, 323-341. 
Irish Land Acts, 335, 343, 383, 396, 

400, 407, 420. 
"Treaty of Kilmainham," (1882) 

345-348. 
Phoenix Park Murders, (1882), 348, 

352. 
Prevention of Crime Act, 348, 381. 
Arrears Act, (1882), 349. 
The " Invincibles " and other con- 
spirators, 350-354, 379. 
Testimonial to Mr. Parnell, (1883), 

354. 
Ameliorative measures passed, 

(1884), 361. 
Appointment of Archbishop 

Walsh and change of the Papal 

attitude, 384. 
National Independence demanded 

by Mr. Parnell, 385-387. 
Home Rule Policy of Mr. Glad- 
stone, 388-394, 413. 
Plan of Campaign, (1886), 395-396, 

402-403. 
Local Government Act, (1898), 410, 

423-424. 
Departments of Agriculture and 

of Technical Instruction, (1899), 

425. 



INDEX. 



501 



Isabella II. of Spain, 146. 

Ismail Pasha, 207-213. 

Italy and Austria, 25, 97, 106. 

J. 

Jackson, General, President, 474. 
Japan : 
Conflicting interests with Russia, 

281. 
Isolation of Japan, (1638-1853), 

282, 284. 
The Mikados, 2S3-285. 
The Shoguns, 283, 285. 
Japanese Ports opened to foreign 

commerce, (1854), 283, 287. 
Corea 284 

Beginning's of Reform, (1868), 286, 
Conscription adopted, (1882), 286. 
Japanese Navy, 287. 
Limited Monarchy established, 

(1889), 287. 
Houses of Representatives, 288- 

289. 
Education System, 290. 
War with Corea and China, (1893- 

4), 291. 
Russia, 293. 
Jefferson, Thomas, President, 465, 

466, 467, 469. 
Jellalabad, The Retreat from Cabul 

to, (1841), 236. 
Jena, Battle of, (1806), 20. 
Jubilee Celebrations of Qaeen Vic- 
toria's reign, 397, 453. 

K; 

Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir James, 161. 
Khartoum, The fall of, (1885), 230. 
Kilmainham, "Treaty," (1882), 345- 

348. 
Kitchener, General, and the Soudan, 

233. 
Kossuth & Hungary, 100. 

L. 

Lawrence, Lord, 238. 
Lawrence, Sir John, 238, 239, 258. 
Leitrim, Earl of, assassinated, (1878), 

311. 
"Liberal Unionist" party, forma- 
tion of, (1886), 392. 
Licensing Acts. (1872 and 1874), 300- 

304. 
Lichfield House Compact, 49, 51. 
Li Hung Chang and Japan, 293. 
Lincoln, President, 480, 481, 482, 483. 
Liquor Traffic, 300-304. 
Local Government Acts : 
England, (1888), County Councils 

established by, 398. 
Scotland, (1889). 403. 
Ireland, (1898), 410, 423. - 



London. (1899), 425. 
Louisiana Purchase, The, (1803), 

468. 
Louis XVIII., 26. 
Louis Phihppe, (1830), 30, 32, 52, 66, 

68, 93, 94, 98. 
Lowe, Robert, 142, 162. 
Lytton, Lord, 241, 253. 

M. 

Macaulay. Lord, 36, 43, 48, 52, 56, 81, 

83, 88, 104, 128. 
MacKnight, Thomas, Biographical 

Sketch of, V-X. 
Madison, President, 469, 478. 
Mahdi, The, 223. 
"Maine," The destruction of the, 

(1898), 490. 
Manchuria and Russia, 281, 293. 
Manilla, Spanish fleet desti'oyed at, 

(1898), 493. 
Marengo, Battle of, (1800), 20. 
Marriage Act, (1898), 425. 
Married "Women's Property Act, 

(1882), 343-344. 
Maynooth Grant, The, 83, 85. 
Mayo, Lord, 239, 241. 
McCarthy, Justin, 170. 
McHale, Archbishop, 312. 
McKinley, President, 488, 490, 491 

492. 
Mehemet Ali, 60-69. 
Melbourne, Lord, 57, 67, 73, 75, 76. 
Merchant Shipping Act, (1876), 299. 
Mexico, Purchases of Territory 

from, by the United States, 

(1848-1853), 468. 
Napoleon III. and the Emperop 

Maximilian, 473. 
Mikados of Japan, 282. 
Minto, Lord, 98, 100. 
Mitchell, John, 307. 
Moltke, Count von, 148. 
Monroe, President, 471, 472. 
The Monroe Doctrine, (1823), 471, 

472. 
Montalembert, Count de, 99. 
Montpensier, Duke de, 94. 
Mormonism, 495, 496. 
Mountmorres, Lox'd, murder of, 

(1880), 326. 
Mutiny, The Indian, (1857), 122-124. 

N. 

Napier, Sir Charles, 237. 
Naples, The King of, 72. 
Napoleon Bonaparte, 9, 20.21, 22, 25. 
Napoleon III., 101, 111, 113-122, 146- 

151. 
Mexico and the United States, 468. 
National Debt, conversion of by Mr. 

Goschen, (1888), 400. 
National Irish Land League, (1879) 

312. 



502 



INDEX. 



Newfoundland, 61. 
New Guinea, 445, 447. 
Nicholas II. of Russia, 279-281. 
Nihilism in Russia, 274-279. 
Northbrook, Lord, 241. 
Northcote, Sir Stafford, 232, 310. 
Nubar Pasha and General Gordon, 

218. 
Nullification, Ordinance of, (1832), 

477. 



O'Brien, W. Smith, 105. 

Obstruction in the House of Com- 
mons, 307-311. 

O'Connell, Daniel, 34, 33, 48-52, 105. 

O'Connor, Feargus, 101. 

Orange Society, The, 14. 

Ordinance of Nullification, (1832), 
477. 

Otho, King of Greece, 107. 

Oudh, Annexation of, (1856), 122, 
126. 



Pius IX., Pope, 100, 151. 

"Plan of Campaign" in Ireland, 

(1886), 395, 402. 
Plimsoll, Samuel, 298-300. 
Poland, 9, 10, 67, 95. 
Polignac, Prince de, 27. 
Political Corruption : 
In England, 164-165. 
In the United States, 474, 475, 485. 
Poor Law Reform, 47, 90. 
Portugal, 97. 
Power, O'Connor, 809. 
Presbyterians and the Church of 

Scotland, 296. 
Protection in the United States, 474, 

476, 477. 
Public Worship Regulation Act, 

(1874), 296-298. 

Q. 

Quarter Sessions, administrative 
powers of transferred to County 
Councils (1888), 398-400. 



Paciflco, M., 107. 

Palmerston, Lord, 10, 66, 67, 80, 93, 

95, 100, 107, 110, 112. 
Paris, Treaty of, (1856), 151-153. 
Parliamentary Government, at- 
tempts to discredit, 307-311. 
Parliamentary Oath, refusal of Mr. 
Bradlaugh to take, (1880), 316- 
321. 
Parnell, Charles Stewart : 
And the House of Commons, 308. 
Increase of Crime in Ireland, 311. 
Contrasted with Mr. Gladstone, 

323, 
Land League Agitation, (1880-81), 

323 340 
Imprisonment of, (1881), 340. 
Testimonial to, (1883), 354. 
Parnell Commission, (1890), 396, 

400-402. 
Death of, (1891), 405-407. 
Pauper Immigration and the United 

States, 495. 
Peace Society and the Tzar, ll4. 
Peel, Sir Robert, 32, 34, 37, 67, 71, 73, 

77, 78, 84, 86, 109. 
Peel, Viscount, and temperance re- 
form, 304. 
Perry, Commodore and Japan, 283- 

2S4. 
Persia and Russia, 281. 
Philippine Islands acquired by 

United States, (1898), 493. 
Phoenix Park Murders. (1882), 348, 

352. 
Pilnitz, The Convention of, (1791), 

8. 
Pitt, William, 17, 18. 



Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, 66, 107, 

122. 
Redistribution of Seats Act, (1885), 

377-379. 
Reform Acts, (1832, 1866, 1884-5), 36, 

37, 38, 41, 142-144, 356-381. 
Rights of Man, The, 4, 465. 
Ripon, Lord, 253. 
Roberts, General Lord : 
And Afghanistan, 243-245. 
And India, 253, 261. 
Roman Catholic Association, The, 

11,34. 
Roman Catholic Clergy and the 

Land League, (1879), 312. 
Roseberv, Lord, 415-417. 
" Round' Table Conferences," (1886), 

395 
Russell, Lord John, 35, 38, 50, 56, 73, 
76, 79, 80, 87, 90, 90, 108, 109, 110, 
112, 117. 
Russia : 
The Emperor Nicholas, 66, 113-122. 
And Turkey, 72, 151-153, 174-205. 
Condition of the peasantry, 266, 

269-273. 
The reform movement of 1860, 

267. 
Conflicting forces, 268. 
Liberation of the Serfs, (1861), 268. 
System of Local Self -Government, 

(1861). 270, 273. 
The Philosophy of Nihilism, 274. 
Revolutionary parties, 274-278. 
Assassination of Alexander II., 

(1881), 277. 
Women and the Reform Party, 
278-279. 



INDEX. 



503 



Nicholas II., 279-280. 
Foreign Policy of Russia, 280-281. 
China and the Far East, 281, 293- 
294. 
Russian advance towards India, 235, 

240-243, 250, 261. 
Russian Mission to Cabul, (1878), 242. 
Russo-Turkish War, (1877), 194-197. 

S. 

Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, (1875, 

1879), 303, 
Salisbury, Lord, 189-193, 198, 297. 
Salisbury-Schouvaloff secret agree- 
ment, (1878), 198. 
Sandon, Lord, 304. 
Sand River Convention, (1852), 454. 
San Stefano, Treaty of, (1878), 197-8, 

200. 
Scotland, The Church of: 
Abolition of lay patronage, (1874), 
296. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 56. 
Sedan, Battle of, (1870), 149. 
Serfs, Liberation of the Russian, 

(1861), 268-274. 
Servian War, (1876), 186-188. 
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 88, 89. 
Shere Ali, 239-243. 
Shiel, Richard, 52. 
SiSyes, xibb6, 4. 

Slavery, Abolition of, by Great 
Britain (1833), 45. 
The Slave Trade, 131. 
Struggle over in the United States, 

478, 479, 480, 481, 482. 
In the Soudan, 216, 222, 232. 
Socialism, contrast of with democ- 
racy, 428^31. 
Society of United Irishmen, 12, 13, 
Sonderbund, The, 97. 
Soudan, The, 216-234. 
South Sea Islands, British occupa- 
tion of desired by Australia, 
(1883), 446. 
Spain, 29, 57, 67, 93-95, 146. 
Joseph Bonaparte, 21. 
Revolution of 1823, 27. 
American Colonies, 29, 30. 
Cuba, 487, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492. 
The United States, (1898), 490, 491, 

492. 
War with the United States, (1898), 
493. 
Stowe, Mrs. Beecher, 182, 
Suez Canal, 207-212. 

Neutrality guaranteed, 213. 
Syrian Massacres, The, 177 



T. 



"Tariff of Abominations," (1828), 

477. 
Tel-el-JCebir, Battle of, (1882), 214, 



Temperance legislation and propo- 
sals, 300-304. 
Tewfik, Prince, 214. 
Texas, admitted a State of the 

Union, (1845), 468. 
Thiers, M., 68, 69, 71. 
Tithe Commutation Act, (1836), 54. 
Tolstoi, Count, 271. 
Tone, T. Wolfe, 12, 13. 
Trade Guilds, attempt to replace by 

Trade Unions, 433. 
Trade Union Act, (1871), 434. 
Trade Unions, 433-435. 
Trans-Siberian railway, ^'81. 
Transvaal : 
Annexation of, and restoration of 

Independence, 454-457. 
The Republic, 295. 
Subsequent history of, and the 
war of 1899, 457-459. 
"Treaty of Kilmainham, " (1882), 

345-348. 
Triple Alliance, The, (1887), 155. 
Turgenieff and Nihilism, 274. 
Turkey : 
And the European Powers, 29, 66, 

67, 70, 71, 107, 113-122, 174-206. 
Christian populations of, 121. 
Reports of British Diplomatic and 
Consular agents on Turkish mis- 
rule, 176, 181-184. 



U. 



United States : 

And Japan, 283, 

Restrictive measures against po- 
litical criminals, (1885), 380. 

Early Struggles for Nationality 
and Union, 462-471. 

The Constitution, (1789), 462, 464. 

Influence of the French Revolu- 
tion, 465. 

Federalists and Democracy, 467, 

Acquisitions of Territory, 467, 468, 
469. 

War with England, (1812), 470, 471. 

The Monroe Doctrine, (1823), 471, 
472. 

Reformation of Political Parties, 
473,474. 

Growtli of Political Corruption, 

474, 475. 

Attempts at Civil Service Reform, 

475, 476. 

Causes of the Civil War, (1860), 

476, 477. 

Ordinance of Nullification, (1832), 

477, 478. 

The Slavery Question, 478, 479, 480, 

481, 482. 
Results of the Civil War. 48,?,.: 
Assassinations of Presidents Lin- 
coln, Garfield, and McKinley, 
482,483. ■ 



501 + XX = 524. 



INDEX. 



Policy of reconstruction, 483, 484. 

Bimetallism, 485. 

Tariff Reforin, 485. 

Momentous change in the senti- 
ment of the people, 486, 487. 

American influence abroad, 486, 
487. 

War with Spain, (1898), 493. 

Political Progress and Material 
Expansion of, 494, 495. 

Moral energy of the nation, 495, 
496. 
University Test Act, (1871), 164, 
Uukiar-Skelessi, Treaty of, 67, 70. 

V. 

Vatican, attitude of towards Irish 

politics, 337, 354, 384, 402. 
Victor-Emmanuel, King of Italy, 

151. 
Victoria, Queen, 56, 57, 60, 93, 106. 

110. 
Empress of India, 128, 259, 262-264. 
Villiers, Charles, 73, 77. 
"Virginius," The, incident, (1873), 

487. 
Vivisection, 306. 



W. 

Walsh, Archbishop, 384. 

Washington, George, 3, 7, 462, 466, 
467. 

Waterloo, Battle of, (1815), 21. 

Webster, Daniel, 463, 468, 480. 

Wellington, The Duke of, 21, 24, 28, 
32, 33, 35, 37, 53, 71, 78, 102. 

Weyler, General, and Spanish mis- 
rule in Cuba. 438, 439. 

Wilberforce, William, 44. 

William I., Emperor of Germany, 
145, 153. 

William II., Emperor of Germany, 
156-7. 

William IV., 37, 54, 55. 

Wolseley, Lord, 224, 230, 231. 

Y. 

Yakoob Khan and Great Britain, 

243. 
Young Ireland Party, 106. 



Zulu War, (1879), 295. 



OCT 25 1902 



